A Bad Romance
by FireBreeze1
Summary: Arthas and Sylvanas get married and thing become a bit of a nightmare. This story will be several chapters long and contain many different warcraft pairing (some of them might be a bit strange) with Arthas/Sylvanas love then hate being the main. (I was seriously debating with myself whether this should be a T or M rating, I've decided on M for language, violence and references)
1. The mistake

Disclaimer : I don't own warcraft. I don't own the song Bad Romance either. This story has nothing to do with the song it's just a title. This story is just meant to be slightly funny so don't take the messing around with the lore too seriously.

Arthas

The bell chimed across the city of Lordaeron. Arthas walked through the city wearing a black cloak. The drawbridge lowered in front of him and he cross it. Rose petals fell around him and as he walked he grabbed one and held it in his hand for a few seconds before letting it fall away to the ground. Then he reached the door to the throne room.

"At last" he said to himself. He pushed the doors open and stepped inside the grand circular room. His footsteps made loud thudding noises as he stepped across the fancy floor.

Arthas drew his sword and the King, his father stood up from his throne. Arthas knelt before him as a sign of respect but that wasn't his intent there that day. His father had tried to deny his heart's desire and now he would pay the price.

"Ah my son" King Terenas Menethil said.

Arthas through for a moment, he didn't need to listen to him anymore. Who was his father telling him he couldn't marry who he wished, disapproving of his love for the high elf. Arthas stood and removed his hood with a quick motion of his hand. He lifted his sword and walked towards his father. When he reached him he grabbed him and aimed the sword.

"What is this, What are you doing my son?" his father asked.

Arthas raised his sword for the kill and replied "Succeeding you father" and with that he stabbed his blade into the king.

The king gasped as he died and the crown bounced of his head landing at the bottom of the stairs that led up to the throne, broken with the king's blood splattered on the bottom of it.

Several hours later Arthas rode into a small town near the edge of Lordaeron. Tomorrow morning he would get married and their was nothing his father could do to stop him. Arthas reached the inn and knocked on one of the room doors. The door swung open to reveal the beautiful blond elf he would marry, Sylvanas Windrunner.

"Arthas don't you know it's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding" she said with a smile.

"I'm sorry about that" Arthas said returning the smile "but this couldn't wait"

Sylvanas looked at him with an expression of curiosity on her beautiful face.

"Of course, come in" she said.

When Arthas entered the room he turned to her and said "I went to speak to my father, like you asked".

"And how did that go will he attend the wedding or does he still disapprove?" she asked him.

"Actually he's dead. He won't be attending anything. I am king of Lordaeron now"

"Oh … Arthas I am so sorry for your loss" she said "Do you want to postpone the wedding and take some time to grieve?".

Arthas sighed. He supposed that postponing the wedding would be appropriate but his father's disapproval had been what brought about this set of events. His father had disapproved and threaten to cut him off if he married Sylvanas but Arthas wanted to be King and he decided that he'd waited long enough.

"No, Lordaeron will need a Queen as much as it needs a King and I want you by my side".

She hugged him. "I love you" she said.

"I love you too" he replied.

They kissed each other goodnight and then Arthas left her room. He'd see her tomorrow at the alter.

Sylvanas

Sylvanas woke early the next morning. She felt slightly nervous which was not a feeling she was used to. Normally she was confident, brave and strong. She was after all the Ranger General of Quel'thalas. She spent a few hours running some last minute errands. Then she returned to her room to put on her dress.

"You look beautiful" Veressa said as she helped Sylvanas with her hair.

Sylvanas smiled "I'm glad you're here".

"You're my sister of course I'm here" Veressa said.

Sylvanas smiled at her "I wish Alleria could be here though".

"I'm sure she would be very proud of you if she was here. She would also say you look very beautiful" Veressa said with a smile.

Veressa finished of her work with Sylvanas's hair. There came a knock at the door of the room and Veressa went to go answer it. Sylvanas picked up her Bouquet and took another look at herself in the mirror. In a few minutes she would walk down the aisle and marry Arthas. Veressa returned to her and said "Sylvanas, Lor'themar is here to see you"

Sylvanas smiled and held the bouquet out to her sister "Here hold this. I'll talk to him".

She walked across the room to the door where he stood waiting.

"Lor'themar I'm so glad you could make it. To what do I owe the pleasure" Sylvanas said with a smile.

"Are you sure about this Sylvanas?" he asked

"Of course I am. Would I be doing this if I wasn't" she replied.

Lor'themar nodded "I thought you'd say that. We will miss you in Quel'thalas as the Ranger General"

"Is that what you're worried about? Lor'themar you'll make an excellent Ranger General" she said.

Lor'themar was silent for a moment, to Sylvanas it looked like he was struggling to say something "Well if he makes you happy then I'm happy for you. That's all I've ever wanted for you, for you to be happy" he said when he finally spoke.

"Aw Lor'themar your so sweet" Sylvanas said with a smile "Now I really need to get going, it was nice talking to you" and with that she turned and headed back into the room to collect her bouquet and to tell her sister it was time to go.

Arthas

Arthas stood outside the church welcoming guests and waiting for his best man. He was starting to get annoyed, the wedding would be starting soon and the best man not being there was a problem. Just when he thought he was about to scream several horses pulled up in front of him. His best friend King Varian Wrynn of Stormwind jumped down from his horse and as did his guards and son Anduin.

"Arthas it's good to see you" Varian said and they hugged.

"Could you try getting here earlier next time when I'm doing something important like this" Arthas said

"Sorry" Varian replied "And I was so sorry to hear about you father as well. I know this isn't the time but what happened to him?"

"Your right this isn't the time" Arthas said noticing Sylvanas heading down the road with her sister towards the church. He through of what Sylvanas had said about it being bad luck to see the bride before the wedding but he was sure that that was just superstition. She did look very beautiful Arthas could see as he looked at her.

"Varian can we go into the church now please?" Arthas begged hoping not to need to delay the wedding even for a moment.

Varian and Arthas took their places at the altar and awaited the bride. At that moment it began to pour down outside. 'Great now the weather is bad now as well, is anything going to go right today' Arthas thought with frustration. At that moment however the musicians begin playing 'here comes the bride' as Sylvanas and Vereesa came down the aisle, Arthas let go of his frustrations with the weather and the best man for now. Sylvanas reached him and handed her bouquet over to her sister. Then she and Arthas joined hands and turned to face one another.

"Dearly beloved we are gathered here today …" the priest began (I could do the rest but it would take up way too much space and I am not entirely sure how it goes after this.)

After awhile of talking the priest finally began to reach the end.

"Arthas Menethil do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?" the priest asked.

'What sort of question is that?' Arthas thought 'of course I do' but he keeped this to himself and instead he simply said "I do"

The priest then turned to Sylvanas and said "Sylvanas Windrunner do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?".

'Again stupid question. Why else would we be here' Arthas thought.

"I do" Sylvanas said.

"I now pronounce you man and wife" the priest said "You may now kiss the bride".

'About bloody time' Arthas thought as he lead forward and kissed his wife.

They moved on to the reception next. People came up to them to offer their congratulations. Arthas spoke to each one of their well wishes politely but in his mind he thought 'just leave the gifts you got us and go. That would certainly save us from hearing similar annoying words from all of you'. After food and drink Arthas was expected to dance. It was supposedly a tradition but Arthas hated dancing. 'I'll get rid of this stupid tradition soon' he thought as he and Sylvanas danced round the dance floor. Finally he was able to break away from the dance floor with the excuse that it have been a long day and he was tired. He sat down next to Varian.

Varian turned to him and said "Arthas as I mentioned earlier I want to talk about your father, What happened to him I heard he was stabbed?" Varian asked.

'If you want to know whether or not I killed my father why don't you have the guts to ask Varian?' Arthas thought "Yes he was, it's just so tragic" he said as Sylvanas came to sit down beside him.

"Are you looking for the person who did it so they can be punished by the law?" Varian asked.

'Of course not' Arthas thought 'because I did it. He was an old idiot and he stood in my way. He deserved what he got after threatening to disinherit me because I chose to follow my heart and he disapproved' instead he said "Of course, I will find the assassin and then they will pay"

Varian gave an approving nod and said "I am so sorry for your loss and congratulations on the wedding" then he walked of.

'It should be I'm happy for your loss because now you get to be King and you've have gotten rid of that fool' Arthas thought.

Sylvanas

Next it was time for them to leave the reception. There was a horse a cart waiting for them out the front. Sylvanas keeped thinking through what she'd heard Varian say to Arthas. Something didn't add up. She took his arm and the two of them headed towards the carriage. She smiled and waved to her sister and gazed around the room. Her gaze found Lor'themar who had drunk so much that night that he had passed out. Sylvanas wondered why, he normally wasn't a heavy drinker. They reached the carriage and Arthas helped her up.

'That's sweet' she thought 'but I can manage by myself'.

When the were in the carriage the driver had the horses go and they began to move away from their wedding. However she could not stop thinking about what happened to Arthas's father. Eventually she decided to ask.

"Arthas" she began.

"Yes, what is it my love?" he asked her.

"About what Varian was asking about, about your father. Did you do it? Did you kill him?" she asked slightly dreading the answer.

He looked at her for a moment then said "Yes".

Sylvanas was shocked "Why! He was your father why would you do it?"

"He deserved it. He didn't want us to be together. Now we can be happy without him trying to ruin things. He was a fool, Lordaeron is far better off with me as a King that him" Arthas replied.

Sylvanas could not keep the horror from appearing on her face. She wondered if she'd just made a terrible mistake in marrying him.

 **Author notes: Hope you like it. I will try add more chapters soon. Please review. Also I plan to do several different pairings throughout this story but I am open to suggestions. If you suggest a pairing that I can fit into the story with what I have planned and I think it's a good idea to stick it in then I will. I don't mind if it's a bit strange but if I really don't like the idea I probably won't stick it in. Given some of my plans with this it's very likely that the suggested pairing won't be permanent.**


	2. The Problems

**Author notes: I know it doesn't follow the lore at all but I needed to do it this way for the story to work. I've take something from the lore and twisted them to fit this story and other lore things that don't really fit this story have been ignored. I know this chapter is very long, sorry about that but it's as long as it needs to be.**

Five months later

Sylvanas

If the last few months had taught her anything it was that Arthas was a selfish, spoiled brat. She could no longer stand him. She regretted marrying him and Sylvanas Windrunner rarely regretted anything. She didn't regret any harsh words she'd ever said to anybody or actions she'd taken over her many years expect this one. She certainly didn't regret her actions in the last few month since marrying Arthas such as the first time she'd poured a potion in Arthas's drink that had made him vomit for a week, nor did she regret throwing a clock at him last week or the time she'd ruined his favorite blue cloak by throwing red dye in with it well it was in the washing bucket. Things between them had become like a war were no swords had physically been drawn. Sylvanas ruined this cloak, he broke her bow. She made him sick with a potion, he locked her out of the castle for several hours. She threw a clock at him, he threw a flaming candle back. It was hard to tell who had started it. The problems in their marriage however she knew had began the night he told her he'd killed his father, which just so happened that had also been the night they had got married. Arthas had told her that he'd killed his father for her but it didn't take her long to realise that it wasn't true. He'd killed his father for himself, for greed because he wanted to be King. The only person Arthas cared about was Arthas.

Sylvanas raised her bow and fired at a target. She was in the practices yard. She found shooting a target helped, it certainly stopped her from shooting Arthas. She picked up another arrow and while imaging Arthas's face on the target she fired again. As she turned to pick up another arrow she saw Lady Jaina Proudmoore watching her. Arthas said he'd invited his former love to Lordaeron to discuss political matters but Sylvanas knew that was another lie, all he was interested in as far as Jaina was concerned was working out how to get her into his bed. Sylvanas didn't really mind however if Jaina wanted him she was welcome to him.

"How can I help you Lady Proudmoore?" she asked politely.

"I'm fine thank you Queen Sylvanas. I just wanted to watch. You're an amazing archer" Jaina said.

Sylvanas nodded "Well if you're looking for your host King Arthas you'll probably find him bedding some farm girl or making out with his horse".

Jaina looked shocked "The cook told me you to were having trouble in you marriage" she said.

Sylvanas laughed. Her and Arthas now ate meals in different rooms as suggested by the cook a few weeks back after they had thrown food at each other for about the tenth time. "That would be putting it mildly" she told Jaina "Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to ride my horse outside the city. It's a lovely day and I'd hate to waste it" and with that she walked off leaving Jania there. She knew it wasn't polite or what a good Queen would do but right now she didn't care.

She reached the stables and climbed on her horse. As she rode out of the stables and almost rode into Arthas as he rode his beloved horse back in. She quickly turned away from him and rode as fast as she could for the drawbridge, to leave the city. Arthas loved that horse, it only took her a week after they were married for her to wonder whether he loved the horse more than her and another week to be sure of it. Once she was outside the city she smiled and took in the beauty of the day. She was happy to be outside the palace and away from Arthas.

Tyrande

Tyrande sat by the window gazing out over the city trying to work out what was bothering her. She knew the answer to her problem but how to work through it was the problem. Her relationship with Illidan was what she thought of now. For the last couple of thousand years they had been an on again off again couple. Now however she felt she wanted off again. She cared for Illidan but recently he had began to annoy her. He was reckless and proud but this also meant he had a bit of an ego. He was also continuing his studies into arcane magic and his drive for power bothered her. He was a gifted sorcerer but he seemed to be starting along a dark path an Tyrande didn't like it. At that moment the door opened and Illidan walked in. Tyrande smiled at him and hoped her concerns about him and them would pass and she'd feel silly for ever feeling like that.

"How was your day?" she asked him.

"I was training my arcane magic with some others today" Illidan told her happily.

'Giving others his bad habits great' Tyrande through "Illidan you know you are not suppose to be using arcane magic!" said told him.

"But it will make me more powerful and it's what I'm good at" he replied.

Tyrande sighed "Illidan what would your brother say?" she asked him.

"Who cares?" replied Illidan "I would make a far better leader of our people than him"

Tyrande was shocked that he would say that although it really wasn't that surprising from Illidan.

"Illidan! Why would you say that?" she asked her voice starting to show her annoyance.

"What it's true" Illidan replied.

Tyrande raised her palm to her forehead and sighed again. She was really losing her patience with him.

"Illidan people think the demons still have a hold on you not because you helped Azshara and the demons originally all those years ago but because you still use arcane magic and you're still looking for more power" she said somehow still managing not to yell.

"I don't care what they think" Illidan snapped back "and could you stop being so whiny about this?"

That was were she loss all control over her frustration with him.

"YOU THINK I'M WHINY!" she shouted.

Illidan shrugged "At the moment yes" he replied.

Tyrande just about screamed at him. Instead she stood up headed for the door.

"I can't stand to be around you right now. I going to take a walk" she said and then she left.

She was glad Illidan didn't decide to protest or ask more about her walk else she may have said something she'd regret later. She still loved Illidan, she thought and she still wanted to be with him but she was so annoyed with him at the moment. She walked across a bridge and looked down into the water.

"Tyrande?" Malfurion's voice made her look up.

She smiled "It's good to see you Malfurion" she said her heart fluttering.

'Damn it Tyrande, why do you always do this?' she thought although she knew the answer to her question.

He smiled back "It's good to see you to. It's a lovely day don't you think?"

She nodded "Yes it is".

"So what are you doing wandering around here?" he asked her.

"I had an argument with Illidan and I needed sometime to think" said replied

Malfurion nodded "My brother can be difficult sometimes, I hope things work out between you"

"Thank you Malfurion" said she to him.

"Well good day to you Tyrande. I must return to work, it can be difficult to lead a race by yourself and you can quickly get behind with work" he said.

He kissed her hand then turned and walked away. Tyrande watched him go. She had often wished Illidan could be more like his brother. Malfurion was strong and wise. Unlike his brother he had patience. However Tyrande knew there was a problem with her trying to fix things with Illidan. This problem unlike many of the other problem in her relationship was not caused by Illidan but by her feelings. She knew as much as she may tried sometimes to deny it, she was falling in love with Malfurion. It had been happening for awhile. She also knew that the danger of her feelings was that not only could it destroy her relationship with Illidan but it could also ruin things between the two brothers.

Arthas

Arthas sat on his throne and listened to one of the common folk talk about the problem of thief within his business.

'This peasant sure does go on' Arthas thought 'And he acts as if I should care about his problem. Why should I? I'm the King' "Well if you can identify any of the men involved the authorities can help you, I'll write them a letter for you to take explaining your situation and I'm sure they will be very helpful. If you can't identify any of them I'm sure they would be happy to help catch them" Arthas said with a very false smile.

The man nodded and smiled as Arthas wrote a hurried note to the head of the police which simply said 'please help this peasant by catching the thieves that are bothering him so I don't have to deal with him or listen to his annoying voice any longer because he's bothering me now' then he signed his name, sealed the letter and passed it to the annoying peasant.

He turned to his guards and said "I've done enough for today tell the rest of the people who want to annoy me with their pleas to come back tomorrow unless the Queen wishes to take over this annoyance".

The guard nodded and went to follow through on his orders. Arthas smiled and sat back in his chair. He was enjoying being King except for the annoying peasants and his bitch of a Queen.

"King Arthas" called one of his advisors.

Arthas groaned and looked up, it was the one he liked to call the useless fat one.

"What is it now?" he asked 'Why is there always another problem they come whining to me for?' he wondered.

"Sorry to interrupt, my King but King Varian Wrynn will be arriving tomorrow and will bring his son Prince Anduin and fifty knights with him" the useless fat one said.

Arthas nodded "Find them rooms in the palace and tell my wife about our soon to be guests".

"Yes my King but don't you want to speak to the Queen yourself?" the useless fat one asked.

"No, I hate her. She's a bitch. You tell her" he replied.

That seemed to shock the useless fat one for some reason "Yes my King. When will the next person be in to speak with you? I hope I haven't made them wait too long"

'You've made me wait too long' Arthas thought "Oh I told the annoying peasants to go home I've seen enough of them for one day" he said.

Again the useless fat one looked shocked "But you've only seen five people today and yesterday you only saw two. My King there are about a hundred people who currently wish to see you. You must see more you are the King" he said.

'How dare he talk to me in such a way. Maybe I should get rid of this one like I did my father' he thought "Yes I know but I've had enough of them and it's time for lunch" he said then he stepped down from the throne where he'd killed his fool of a father. In truth it wasn't lunchtime for another hour but he could probably have the kitchen staff find him something to eat and he was sure the useless fat one would understand him stopping work for food.

On his way into the kitchen he ran into another stupid advisor. This one he called the ugly bald one.

"My King may I speak to you?" the ugly bald one asked.

'You are speaking to me now. What do you wish to bother me with? Why is there always more work to do?' he thought "What do you want?" he asked.

"You need to work on your marriage my King. The people are inspired more by a King that is happily married with a good Queen. Plus eventually you'll need an heir" the ugly bald one said.

Arthas started to laugh. It was really funny the way this stupid man's mind worked. It was really funny that he thought things could be changed, that things could be fixed. It was funny thinking about how Sylvanas would react if she'd heard what he'd just said. Arthas laughed and laughed. He couldn't stop.

"My King, are you alright?" the ugly bold one asked.

Arthas looked at him and continued to laugh "Your saying I should fix my completely ruined and unsalvageable marriage to continue my blood line?"

"Yes" the ugly bald one said looking confused.

Arthas laughed harder 'he's such an idiot maybe I should call him the stupid ugly bald one' he thought "I don't think Sylvanas would be happy at all if you told her that. She'd probably shoot you. I at least can see the funny side. Now get out of my site!" Arthas said and then he laughed some more.

Despite all that he and Sylvanas had done to each other in the relatively short marriage, it have never come to blood between them. However Arthas doubted that swords and arrows would stay out of it if he told her that he was advised that she should have his child.

Arthas found his way to the kitchen and began to ask about a snack. While he was there he noticed a pretty kitchen maid with long red hair. She was pretty he decided not beautiful like Sylvanas and Jaina but she'd do.

"Hey. What your name" he said to her with a smile.

"Hello King Arthas, I'm Bria" she said and smiled back.

"Would you like to join me up in my room for wine and perhaps you can get to know your King a bit better?" he asked her.

The other kitchen staff looked horrified.

"What about your wife?" she asked.

Arthas shrugged "She doesn't care trust me".

Bria thought for a moment "Okay then".

Arthas grinned "This way my lady".

Arthas woke early the next morning next to the kitchen maid whose name he had forgotten already. She wasn't very memorable and he'd probably forget her completely by the end of the week. He called out to his servants and they came to dress him. Once he was satisfied with the way he looked he headed downstairs to prepare for Varian's arrival but not before ordering his servant to inform the kitchen girl that he'd had a lovely time last night but very important business had pulled him away. He reached the entrance to the palace and found Sylvanas and some of his high ranking Marshals already waiting. Jaina was there to. Sylvanas was looking so beautiful with her little crown on her golden blond hair and in the beautiful blue dress that Arthas almost forgot how much he disliked her. Jaina was also looking very beautiful as well dressed in purple. Arthas was about to go flirt with Jaina but at that moment several horses pulled up in front of the palace and he watched as his best friend jumped down from his horse.

He smiled "Varian it's so good to see you".


	3. The visit from Stormwind

**Author notes: The reason for this Anduin, Arthas thing in this is to address the fact that Anduin looks nothing like Varian and to give Varian another reason for naming Arthas the ultimate traitor. As for Arthas I kind of could see any other way of making this story work with making him totally evil which will come across within the next couple of chapter if you don't think he is really evil already.**

Sylvanas

Sylvanas watched as her horrid husband went to embrace his friend. They didn't need to stand outside for long as some servants came forward to show Varian and his little blond son to their rooms. Sylvanas was standing beside one of the Marshal's daughters but she hadn't paid much attention to the young woman till she spoke to her.

"Isn't the little prince so cute? He kind of looks like a little Arthas" the young woman said.

Sylvanas hadn't thought about it like that before but now as she looked she could see the young woman was right, the young prince looked a lot like Arthas.

"Yes I guess he does" Sylvanas replied trying hard to keep the shock out of her voice.

They moved into the dining room for breakfast next. Sylvanas hadn't been in this room of the palace since she and Arthas had started taking meals separately. Thankfully they were sitting at opposite ends of the very long table. However if she felt the urge to throw something at him she was pretty sure she could easily hit him. Throughout breakfast she couldn't help but look at Arthas and Anduin. She needed to know the truth.

"Arthas may I speak to you for a moment?" she asked.

The look on everybody's face suggested they were worried she might try to kill him.

"Of course my Queen" he replied as he got to his feet and followed her into the corridor outside.

When they were alone she turned to him "Did you sleep with Tiffin Wrynn?" she asked.

"I don't see how that any of your business" Arthas answered.

"Did you?" Sylvanas asked again.

"What went on between us is our business but since you're so interested yes I did, several times actually"

"How could you! Varian is your friend and she was his wife!" Sylvanas said. 'Could he go any lower this husband of mine' she thought.

"We had fun and I know it was kind of wrong but Tiffin was beautiful and she wanted me so yes we snuck around for a bit behind Varian's back" Arthas replied with a smile.

Sylvanas heard a noise behind them back at the door to the dining room.

"HOW DARE YOU! AND YOU CALL YOURSELF MY FRIEND" Varian roared.

Sylvanas turned to see Varian standing in the doorway to the dining room his hands clenched in a fist. She quickly moved out of the way as Varian charged at Arthas.

Varian

He hadn't been at all prepare for what he'd just heard. When Jaina had asked him to go and make sure they didn't kill each other he never imagined he'd find out his best friend had an affair with his wife. Now he was furious, he charged toward Arthas and punched him in the face. He went to punch him again but this time Arthas was ready and he blocked the punch and delivered one of his own. Varian barely felt it he was far too angry. He kicked Arthas in the stomach and tried to punch him repeatedly in the face.

"STOP IT BOTH OF YOU!" Sylvanas yelled but Varian was far too angry to stop.

In between the punches he gave and the punches he took he saw the other guests and marshals coming out of the dining room.

"VARIAN, ARTHAS STOP!" yelled Jaina.

"DAD NO!" screamed Anduin.

Varian was on top of Arthas now and in a good position to beat Arthas and wasting little time he wrapped his hands around Arthas throat.

"HOW DARE YOU SLEEP WITH MY WIFE!" he yelled.

Before he could finish choking the piece of slime on the floor in front of him he was pulled to his feet and away from Arthas by two of the Marshals. Arthas made a move to come at him again but two marshals grabbed him as well.

"BREAK IT UP, PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER YOU'RE THE KINGS NOT TWO DRUNK SMALL TOWN BRAWLERS! NOW WHY DON'T YOU BOTH GO BACK TO YOUR ROOMS AND COOL OF" the marshal holding Varian to the left yelled.

Varian wanted to hit Arthas again but he knew the marshal was right.

"Fine" he said and when the marshal released him he turned and headed to the chambers that Arthas had provided him with.

Sylvanas

Arthas and Varian each went their separate way to cool off and the guests returned to breakfast and they all seemed to want to discuss what had just happened. Sylvanas however was not listening to the discussion. Being married to Arthas she was not at all shocked by the fact that he'd slept with Varian wife, disgusted was the word she'd use not shocked. She was also not surprised by Varian deciding to hit Arthas or it turning into a fight like the other guest seemed to be. To her neither man appeared to have much anger management control so the fact the a fight broke out was unsurprising, that fact that it stopped was far more surprising. However what surprised Sylvanas the most was that she'd told them both to stop fighting not yelled something like 'come on Varian kick his ass'.

"You'll have to forgive my husband" Sylvanas announced to the table "He has very poor impulse control. Although knowing him he probably wanted Varian to fight him so he could get out of doing any work for today".

That started a whole new round of talking about both Arthas and Varian for some reason. Sylvanas excused herself from the table with the excuse that she had a lot of important things to do. As she stepped out of the dining room the advisor named Brendon Godwin, or as Arthas liked to call him the annoying big nosed one came up to speak with her.

"My Lady, is it true that the King has been injured in a fight with King Varian?" he asked her.

Sylvanas nearly laughed 'injured he says that as if it was a training fight and not Varian hitting him because he deserved it' "Yes, Arthas and Varian fought and they are both back in their chambers now" she told him.

"Oh how dreadful and with our gracious King wounded who will listen to the people's problems today" Brendon said.

'Jeez no wonder Arthas calls him the annoying big nose one' Sylvanas thought 'and as if it's not obvious he's trying to get me to to fill in for Arthas. Thought I don't know why he's that bothered by Arthas being unable to talk to the people today, it's not like he ever did a particularly good job'

"Yes it tragic isn't?" Sylvanas said her voice full of sarcasm.

"Well perhaps you could fill in for him my lady?" Brendon asked.

Sylvanas thought for a moment. She was going to say no but she was as much as she may currently hate it she was Queen of Lordaeron.

"Fine" she said.

"One more matter" the advisor said.

'Isn't there always' Sylvanas thought.

"This fighting between the King's is not good for the Alliance politically. We need to stop this fighting between them. Do you think maybe you could speak to King Arthas?" the advisor asked.

Sylvanas laughed, she'd managed to contain it the rest of the discussion but that was just to funny.

"No" she said "Now if you'll excuse me advisor the people are waiting for me" and then she walked of leave him looking shocked and disappointed.

Sylvanas tried her best to listen and come to the correct solution as the people of Lordaeron come to her with their problems. Although not everything was resolved to a satisfying conclusion she was certain she was doing a far better job than Arthas and that was important, that she was better than him. She kept thinking about what the advisor had said about fixing things between Arthas and Varian before the Alliance was effected. Arthas would never be sorry however and Sylvanas didn't imagine that Varian would ever be forgiving.

"Thank you my Queen" the woman that was currently speaking to her said.

That drew her out of her thought "Yes of course, It's my duty to help the people of Lordaeron" she replied. 'What was I discussing with this one again?' she wondered.

The woman bowed and left. Sylvanas decided she'd go speak to Varian, at the very least she could apologies for Arthas's behaviour for the people of Lordaeron and explain to him it wasn't the citizens fault that they were stuck with such an asshole of a King and therefore continuing the alliance was for the benefit of all despite his personal problem with Arthas. If they were all very lucky Varian would get rid of Arthas and leave it at that, but it was very unlikely. She left the duties of speaking with the citizens with the advisor Arthas liked to call the useless fat one and hoped he didn't live up to that name.

"You've done well my lady. I swear you've seen more people today than Arthas in the whole week" the advisor told her as she left.

'That's because Arthas is the most self involved laziest man on the planet that I just had the misfortune to marry' she thought.

She reached Varian's chambers and knocked on the door. He opened it after a few seconds.

"Lady Sylvanas. What can I do for you?" Varian asked.

"May I enter? I wish to speak with you about this morning" she said.

"You may" Varian said and he stood aside to allow her in.

Once she was inside the room she turned to him and said "Listen I'm sorry about this morning you should never have had to find out like that. He's a terrible friend but the Alliance still needs to remain strong"

Varian gave her an odd look and she wondered whether he was even listening to her.

"How do you stand being married to him?" he asked "I mean I've heard rumors that you're having difficulties in your marriage and that he's slept his way round several houses in the city but how do you stand it?"

She sighed "I don't really. I hate Arthas. There is nothing I regret more than marrying him".

He nodded and moved closer to her "You wish to hurt him?" he asked.

"Yes" she answered. It was the truth there was no point denying it. She was so angry with the way things were that she wanted to hurt him. Varian clearly wanted to hurt Arthas to, so there was no point denying it. Varian took another step closer to her until he was almost touching her. Then he gently place his hand on her cheek and his lips to her's. She could have pulled away if she'd wanted to, but instead she returned the kiss. He was angry with Arthas and he wanted to hurt him the way he'd been hurt and she perfectly understood that. She wanted to hurt Arthas to. Then for some reason she remembered what Lor'themar had said to her before her wedding "Are you sure about this?".

That made her pull away "No, don't" she said and she headed for the door.

"I'm sorry I -" Varian began but she didn't hear the rest, she had already left the room.

Arthas

He sat alone in his room. He didn't want to be alone, he wanted Jaina. However she didn't seem to be all that interested in rekindling their relationship. Arthas suspected that it was mostly due to the fact that he was married.

'It's all Sylvanas fault that she doesn't want to be with me. Many things are Sylvanas's fault' he thought.

He often wondered what madness had lead him to marry her. He had hoped that given that he was King of Lordaeron he could come up with a better answer than 'because she is beautiful'. Sadly however he couldn't. Arthas got up and decided he couldn't spend another moment sitting alone in his room. He got up and headed down the stairs, he would go speak with Jaina.

When he wasn't that far from Jaina's chambers he almost walked into Sylvanas as she was hurrying away from the guest chambers. She glared at him as they approached one another.

"What are you doing here?" she snapped at him.

'Why is she getting angry with me? I'm the one that should be angry with her, she's the one ruining things between me and Jaina' he thought "Why shouldn't I be here. It's my palace" he replied "What are you doing here?"

She gave him a really sour look and Arthas, although he was bad at noticing others feeling started to wonder if something else was bothering her.

"I came to clean up your mess like I always have to! I spoke with Varian, seriously Arthas how could you!" she just about screamed at him.

Arthas thought for a moment. He was beginning to understand what else was bothering her.

He laughed "Let me guess he wanted to get back at me for sleeping with his wife by sleeping with mine".

Sylvanas looked really shocked "How did you know?"

Arthas shrugged "It's what I'd do if I were him. So did you sleep with him?" he asked her.

Now she looked horrified "No, do you really think I'd sleep with someone to help them get revenge on you?"

"Shame, that would have made us even and give Varian nothing to complain about" Arthas said and he watched as the horror turned to pure disgust. She slapped him hard across the face.

"YOU ARE THE MOST HORRIFYING, AWFUL, EVIL, DISGUSTING MAN EVER!" she screamed at him as she hit again.

As she went to slap him a third time he grabbed her wrist in a hold so tight that he was sure if he squeezed any harder her wrist would snap.

"Don't you dare raise a hand to your King" he told her.

She glared at him with a fiery rage in her eyes as she tried to pull her wrist away from his near bone breaking hold.

"YOU ARE NOT MY KING!" she yelled at him her other hand falling to a dagger at her waist.

Arthas was pretty sure things were about to escalate to a whole new level of a bad marriage when Jaina interrupted them.

"Arthas, we were going to go up to your meeting room and discuss the trade route problem" Jaina called out to him.

'What trade route problem? Is she just saying this so we can go somewhere private?' Arthas wondered. He released Sylvanas and turned to see not just Jaina standing at the foot of the stairs but the marshals, the ugly bald advisor and several servants who had come out to see what was going on. Clearly they had been drawn by Sylvanas's yelling. He took one last quick glance at Sylvanas's murderous gaze before departing with Jaina. He was now relatively certain that one of them would probably kill the other soon.

He and Jaina made there way to the meeting room. As soon as he shut the door Jaina turned to him.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!" she yelled.

'Damn, so we're not coming up here to hook up and why is everybody yelling at me today? ' Arthas thought "Nothing's wrong with me. The correct question is what's not right with me and the correct answer is nothing because I'm so perfect" he said.

Jaina looked horrified "First you fought Varian and then you hurt Sylvanas. You're sick and I don't know how I was ever in love with you" she said.

Arthas was shocked "Firstly the fight was his fault not mine. Second she hit me first. Third how could you say that, I love you!"

Jaina stared at him "I could never love you again. After everything since I've been here I have decided to leave Lordaeron tomorrow morning. Good bye Arthas" she said and with that she strode out of the meeting room.

'Where did I go wrong?' Arthas wondered 'Why doesn't she love me?'

Sylvanas

She sat in her room and thought. It was several hour since her argument with Arthas and she was still very angry. Her wrist had been bandaged up by the castle doctor but it still hurt a little. She was not sure that she'd ever understand why she'd left her home, her family, her friends and her position as Ranger General for this nightmare. She was alone and trapped in a terrible nightmare. She made her mind up and rose to her feet. She hurried through the darkening corridors passed the spot where she and Arthas had argued earlier and into the guest wing. It didn't take her long to reach her goal. When she did she hurriedly tapped on the door. A few seconds later Varian opened the door.

"Lady Sylvanas, about earlier I'm sorry that was not what a King should do, that -" he began but Sylvanas held up a hand to silence him.

"I was wrong" she said.

Varian looked mildly surprised. This time she started the kiss. They both smiled when they broke apart. Sylvanas realised that currently they had more in common than she had thought. They were both really mad with Arthas but also they both had been lonely for a while. However both of their loneliness would end, even if it was only for that one night.


	4. Vengeance

**Author notes : I've made up a few characters over the last few chapters and upcoming chapters using the random name generator. They are mostly servants and unimportant characters that you may only see once. I just felt I should mention that. Also sorry it took me so long to publish this chapter, I had exams but hopefully I'll have more time for this now.**

Varian

He opened his eyes slowly. The first of the morning light was coming in around him. He turned over and glazed at the beautiful woman sleeping beside him. Her long golden blond hair was flowing all over the pillow.

'How did someone so beautiful end up married to a complete prick like Arthas?' he wondered.

At that moment her eyes flicked open and she meet his gaze.

"Good morning" she said with a little smile.

"Good morning to you to" he replied a smile on his face as well. For him it certainly was a good morning. His day had not yet been ruined by Arthas and he had just had a wonderful night with Arthas's very beautiful wife. Soon he would need to go down stairs and face the tasks of the day but for now things were perfect.

"It's probably time to go down to breakfast" Varian informed her.

She groaned "Do we have to? Yesterday was such a disaster" she said.

"What will everybody think if we both don't show up to breakfast?" Varian asked.

"You mean Arthas don't you. I thought you wanted him to know?" she replied.

"Well yes, but what will everybody else think?" Varian said clarifying what he meant.

Sylvanas thought for a moment "I don't care. It's not like Arthas doesn't sleep around"

Varian smiled. She was right why did it matter.

'Casual and meaningless sex is definitely something I've been missing out on" Varian thought. Then he leaned forward and kissed her.

Arthas

He was having a terrible morning. Jaina was leaving in a few hours, so was Varian and his party but Jaina was the one that mattered. He had stayed up late trying to figure out where he had gone wrong but he had still to come up with anything.

'It must be Sylvanas fault, or Varian's or one of the annoying advisor' Arthas thought as he sulkily ate his breakfast. 'and where the hell are they anyway' he wondered.

Nobody was really saying much this morning much to Arthas's relief, although if they had spoken when he didn't want them to he would have ordered them to stop. An awkward silence seemed to hang over the table but Arthas barely noticed, he was far too wrapped up in his own thought.

"Where's dad?" Anduin asked.

'Good question where is the little annoying creatures father' Arthas thought 'but a better question would be why doesn't Lady Proudmoore love prefect Arthas'

"I'm sure he has a good reason for not being here" Jaina told Anduin.

"Yes and perhaps after yesterday he doesn't really want to come to breakfast. Maybe it's for the best" one of the General stated.

"Definitely for the best!" Arthas said loudly "He was being annoyingly whiny about something that happened years ago. I'm glad he's not here because he would probably just whine and hit my beautiful face again".

Everybody at the table shot him a disgusted look which he didn't notice before one of the Generals spoke.

"Yes my King I'm sure you're right" he said with a smile that showed he didn't believe a word of what he'd just said.

A few hours later Arthas stood preparing to bid a farewell to his guest. Varian had reappeared and thankfully was now going to be leaving.

"Jaina please don't go" Arthas said begging his love to stay.

"Why would I stay?" Jaina asked.

"Because I love you and I'm the handsome King of Lordaeron" Arthas said.

Jaina looked disgusted and said "Nope. I'm definitely not staying".

She climbed on her horse and rode towards the gate leaving Arthas wondering why that hadn't won her over. He watched as Varian climbed onto his horse. He looked surprisingly happy given how he'd been so angry yesterday and Arthas could not help but wonder why. As Varian prepared to leave he smiled and winked at someone slightly to his right. Arthas turned to see his wife smile back.

'So that's why they weren't at breakfast, because they slept together' Arthas thought.

For some reason that bothered him. He wasn't sure why.

'It's probably because they got some last night and I didn't' Arthas thought.

After their guests had left Arthas went down to the stables to see Invincible. He took Invincible out into the fields and rode for several hours. After riding Arthas stroked Invincible for awhile, he loved his horse and they had been friends since he was a child. Arthas found a bright red apple and feed it to his beloved horse. That he could have asked the servants to do but instead he did it himself. After Invincible had finished the apple he turned to the stable boy.

"Clean Invincible and then make sure that he is watered and feed" he said.

The boy nodded and set himself to the task that Arthas had given him. Arthas wandered back to the palace still wondering why Jaina didn't want him. It was Sylvanas fault he decided. Part of the little war going on between them. However it was his turn to make a move, one that would hopefully crush her more than Jaina not wanting to be with him and he had just the thing in mind. Hurrying up to her room and finding the jewelry box on the draw he quickly found the item he was looking for. The necklace Sylvanas had once told him had come from her missing and presumed dead sister. He was surprised that he remembered that. He would have the necklace melted down into another piece of jewelry to give to one of his other girls. He smiled as he left her chambers holding the necklace.

Lor'themar

The sun was high in the sky over Quel'thalas and Lor'themar sat at a restaurant table reading Sylvanas's latested letter and completely ignoring the women sitting opposite him. When he read that Arthas had thrown a candle at her he felt like getting on his Hawkstrider and riding to Lordaeron to kill him. However killing the King of Lordaeron was not a particularly good idea, especially if you didn't plan on being executed.

"It's a nice day isn't it" the woman sitting opposite him said.

Lor'themar looked up he had completely forgotten her "Huh, oh yes it is. I'm sorry but what's your name again?" he said 'Shit she's going to think I'm useless. Why did Halduron make me do this'.

She stood up "Look I'm going to go now, clearly you're very busy. It was nice meeting you Ranger General"

'Oh thank god' Lor'themar thought "Yes I'm sorry about this" he said.

She left and Lor'themar paid the bill.

'Good I can return to work now' Lor'themar thought as he made way through the street.

An hour later Lor'themar was leading a small squad of Rangers including Halduron through the Eversong woods. They were going in search of the Trolls that threatened the safety of Silvermoon.

"So how was your date?" Halduron asked as they walked.

"Do we need to talk about this?" Lor'themar asked him.

"So that badly huh. What was the problem Azalia seems like a nice girl" Halduron said.

Some of the other Rangers were laughing slightly by now.

'Why does he have to embarrass me?' Lor'themar thought. "Her name was Azalia?" he asked.

"Oh jeez you're useless no wondered it didn't work out. I told you that like ten times before you went to lunch" Halduron said.

"Well sorry I was distracted by reading" Lor'themar said.

"Reading what?" asked Halduron.

Lor'themar paused "A letter from Sylvanas" he replied.

Halduron looked at for a moment with a look that suggested that he thought Lor'themar was insane.

"Oh god not again. You're telling me you messed up a perfectly good date with a perfectly good girl for a letter from someone that got married five months ago to someone else. Lor'themar we discussed this remember you're suppose to be moving on" Halduron said.

"Yes, but it's not like she's happily married or anything" Lor'themar replied.

"So? Seriously what are you going to do? Ride down to Lordaeron and fight him for her?" Halduron asked.

"I don't know" Lor'themar answered.

Halduron sighed "You're not going give this up are you? You're such an idiot".

Lor'themar turned away from him and continued through the woods.

'I may be an idiot' he thought 'but I'm not willing to let go of my feeling for Sylvanas that easily'.

Malfurion

It was a nice day in Darnassus. Malfurion looked out of the window and watched a leaf drift on the breeze. He had a lot of work to do for the training of the student Druids and he also had several letters to read through. It would be a long and busy day. However he still found himself admiring the day even though he didn't really have the time. There came a knock at the door to his office.

"Come in" he called in as positive a tone as he could 'I don't have time for this. Please don't be bring more work for me'

The door opened and Tyrande stepped into his office. Just seeing her made his heart rate increase a little, he was sure of it.

"Tyrande how nice to see you. What can I do for you" he said with a smile. He always smiled for her.

"It's about Illidan. I still can't get him to stop using arcane magic" she said with a sigh.

"What can I do to help?" Malfurion asked her 'Damn it Malfurion your suppose to be getting out from under all this work not finding yourself more tasks'

"Thank you Malfurion. I was wondering if you could talk to him. Maybe he'll listen to you" she said.

'Stop and think, you have a lot of work to do you don't have time of this. Why are you always jumping to help them' he thought "Of course Tyrande I'll see him soon okay" he said with a smile.

"Thank you so much Malfurion" she said and she smiled back at him before she left his office.

'Crap, now how will I get all this done and deal with Illidan as well' he thought.

As he returned to his work he wondered again why he always jumped in to solve their problems. For so long he told himself that it was because he wanted his brother to be happy but that was a lie. He did it because he wanted Tyrande to be happy.

'Falling in love with your brother's girlfriend is a great way to really mess things up' he warned himself.

Sylvanas

The afternoon sun was a great orange ball in the sky. She stood out on a balcony that overlooked the city. The city was full of noise as people moved about their daily business. Sylvanas smiled, she was in a good mood. After last night and this morning she was happier than she had been in months. Arthas slept around so why shouldn't she hook up with someone every now and again. She liked to think that Arthas would be upset and jealous if he knew what her and Varian had done the night before but she seriously doubted it. It probably won't hurt him in the slightest but thinking that it could made her feel better.

"My Lady" a servant said coming up to her "The jeweler is here, he wish to speak with the King about a project he's just been given".

"Then speak to the King about it, not me" Sylvanas snapped turning her attention back to the view of the city".

"But my Queen the King appears to be busy at the moment" the servant said.

'Wonderful. I get to do that oafs job again. Seriously how did I end up married to the laziest man alive' she thought. "Very well, I'll speak with him in the throne room" Sylvanas said doing nothing to hide her irritation.

She hurried down to the throne room to hopefully cut the visit with the jeweler short. When she reached it she found the jeweler waiting for her.

"I'm sorry to trouble you my lady" the Jeweler began

"Yes, yes what is it?" Sylvanas snapped.

"This morning the King brought me this necklace to be crafted into something new but he didn't chose a new design, I've taken the jewel from the necklace and began melting down the chain but I need to know what to do next" the Jeweler said.

"Necklace, what necklace?" she ask although she had a feeling that she already knew but she hoped she was wrong, that Arthas wasn't that cruel.

The Jeweler drew a jewel for his pocket and said "This was the jewel part of the necklace my Queen".

Sylvanas screamed. It was like Arthas had stabbed her in the heart. The necklace was all that she had left of her sister Alleria and he had ruined it. She wanted to call the guards and order the death of the Jeweler or better yet kill him herself but she realised that he had just been doing his job, Arthas was the one she needed to kill.

"RESTORE THAT NECKLACE TO THE WAY IT WAS AS BEST YOU CAN!" Sylvanas ordered the jeweler then she strode out of the throne room without waiting for a reply.

Sylvanas hurried upstairs to Arthas room one hand on her sword the whole way. When she reached his chambers she didn't bother knocking she just kicked the door open. Arthas was in his bed kissing a women with long blond hair, both of their clothes forgotten about on the floor. Sylvanas was too angry right now to care what she had walked in on.

"WHY DID YOU DO IT?" she screamed at him.

Arthas took his lips away from the blond womans mouth and turned to face her "You're going to have to more specific" he answered.

"THE NECKLACE! YOU RUINED IT!" she screamed so loudly she was sure the whole castle could hear her.

"Oh that, I thought it would make a nice gift for someone" Arthas answered "Now can you get out, we're busy"

'I can't kill him. At least not at the moment, the whole kingdom would know it was me' Sylvanas thought. She would kill him eventually, she would make it look like an accident but for now she would just hurt him the way he'd just hurt her. She'd make him feel like she'd stabbed him in the heart and she knew just how to do it.

"YOU'RE EVIL AND SICK" she told him before she left.

Sylvanas hurried as she left the place. The last of the day's light shone down upon her. All would turn to night soon. She'd collected her bow and several arrows although she really only needed one for this. As she neared the stables she saw that either Arthas or the stable boy had allowed Invincible to stay in the small paddock and why not it was a beautiful night. The fact that the horse was in the paddock only made what she was about to do easier. She pulled an arrow from her quiver and loaded the bow. Then she raised the bow and aimed it at the horse, the afternoon sun almost set behind her. The horse showed no sign that it knew what she was about to do and she supposed that it was easier that way. Sylvanas took a deep breath the anger flowing through her body and then she released the arrow. The arrow soared through the air and hit it's target with a thump.


	5. Death and Despair

**Author notes : I'm a sorry but Invincible is already dead and it will take things from bad to worse. Also Invincible died in the lore and came back as an undead horse when Arthas got Frostmourne. I would also like to note that the story is a bit darker here than it's been in previous chapters. Thank you to everybody who's commented and favorited this story, you're support make it easier to keep going with this so thanks.**

Arthas

Arthas woke early. He went to stand out on his balcony it was a beautiful morning, the clouds were a reddy pinkish colour to the east. Arthas heard a noise and whirled around and saw the stable boy standing behind him, there was blood on his clothes and he looked slightly scared.

"Sorry to disturb you your majesty" the boy said bowing deeply.

"What is it?" Arthas asked.

The boy trembled "Your horse my lord, he is dead".

Arthas stared at him for a few moments in shock not believing what he had just heard.

"I'll get dressed then you will take me to him" he said.

When Arthas was dressed the boy lead him down to the paddock beside the stables. Arthas knelt over his fallen friends body. His hand stroked his white mane that was splattered with a little blood. The grass around Invincible was red and some of his beautiful white was stained red. All Arthas could do was scream, it hurt losing Invincible. As he screamed he felt tears forming in his eyes. He didn't want to cry, to let people think he was weak but he couldn't stop the tear that was running down his check. Arthas found the spot where his beloved Invincible had been struck, the heart. He pulled out the arrow and examined it. There was no doubt that the arrow belonged to Sylvanas. He would kill her for this but in the mean time he had something else to take care of.

"YOU'RE IN CHARGE OF THE HORSES HERE. HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN!" he yelled at the stable boy.

"I'm sorry my King. It won't happen again" the boy said.

"You're right it won't happen again" Arthas said drawing his sword "For your failure I sentence you to death".

There was a look of fear in the boys eyes before Arthas drove his sword through his heart and he was gone in seconds. Arthas let the body fall to the ground his blood applying a new layer to the already soaked ground.

Arthas walked back into the palace still covered in Invincibile and the boys blood. He held his sword out in his hand and the blood dipped of it as he walked through the palace. People looked at him in shock and fear as he passed them in his bloody appearance.

He turned to one of the servants and said "Dig a nice grave for Invincible. I don't care what you do with the body of the boy"

The servant nodded and hurried to do what he had been ordered to do. It didn't take him much longer to find her. She was dressed in her armor as well so clearly she had been expecting him. Given the look of shock on her face however she had not expected to see his blade covered in blood. He moved over to her quickly well she was still in shock and grabbed her by the throat.

"YOU BITCH! YOU KILLED INVINCIBLE!" he screamed at her.

"Yes, I did" she managed to get out between gasps for air.

He raised his sword to kill her but she moved faster and struck him hard in the chest with her foot. Arthas released her and stumbled back giving her time to draw her swords. They moved towards one another blades ringing against each other. The sound of ringing steel filled the room.

'Kill her' he thought 'I've been married to this bitch for long enough'.

He was solid and strong, if their blades locked he would easily be able to overpower her. However she was quick and one of her blades made a small cut in his back.

He cursed 'I must keep my guard up, I can't let her get many more shots like that in'.

They kept fighting blades hitting against each other. People began to come in the hall with them and called out for them to stop but neither of them noticed, they were too busy trying to kill each other.

"DIE!" Arthas yelled as she certainly wasn't making things easy for him.

He swung at her head but she ducked.

'Why won't she just die' Arthas throught.

Arthas side stepped her blades and aimed to stab her through the centre. She moved out of the way.

At that moment General Morton entered the hall and saw them fighting.

He drew his sword and ran towards them shouting "STOP THIS MADNESS!".

He reached them and stuck his blade between them.

"IF YOU CAN'T STAND EACH OTHER JUST GET A DIVORCE! THIS IS JUST CRAZY!"

Arthas and Sylvanas took a step back. He hadn't considered that. He still wanted to kill her but perhaps getting divorced would be the best option for now given how many people there were in the hall currently. He'd get back to killing her later.

"Fine we'll get divorced then" Arthas said.

Sylvanas nodded in agreement "Yes, that's a good idea".

Arthas smiled maybe Jaina would want him when he was divorced.

Illidan

Illidan stood outside practicing his forbidden arcane magic. The ground beneath him was wet from the recent rain but for now the sky was clear.

"Illidan may I speak with you?" his brother voice called out from behind him.

Illidan almost jumped in the air, he hadn't noticed Malfurion standing behind him.

'Crap, he's not going to be happy that he just saw me using arcane magic' Illidan thought.

After the whole demon invasion thing and the betraying them to Azshara, Malfurion had wanted to through Illidan in jail but Tyrande had talked him out of it. Better than some others who had wanted him dead however.

Illidan groaned "Nope I'm really busy at the moment"

Malfurion nodded "Doing what? Not using forbidden arcane magic are you?"

"Nope definitely not. Why would I do something that was forbidden? It will only get me several hour of you and Tyrande lecturing me" Illidan replied.

"Illidan I just saw you!" Malfurion said.

"Can't have done. I wasn't using any arcane magic" Illidan replied.

"Yes you were! Now stop behaving like a child! Tyrande asked me to speak to you" Malfurion said sounding slightly frustrated.

'Oh wonderful Tyrande's going to Malfurion now to complain about me' Illidan thought he was starting to feel angry for some reason. "Of course she came to you, she always comes to you" he snapped and suddenly he realised why he was getting angry. He had noticed how things were between Malfurion and Tyrande and was seriously wondered if they were falling in love with each other.

"Theres no need to get angry" Malfurion said calmly.

He was wrong though, for Illidan there was need to get angry.

"YOU ALWAYS JUDGE ME AND LOOK DOWN ON ME! I HATE YOU! YOU ONLY HATE ME USING ARCANE MAGIC BECAUSE YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE FACT THAT I'M MORE POWERFUL THAN YOU! I'M BETTER THAN YOU IN EVERY WAY!" Illidan yelled.

Malfurion looked at him in shock "Illidan calm down"

That only made thing worse, only made Illidan angrier. He charge forward knocking his brother to ground. He moved to punch his brother in the face but Malfurion who was still slightly taken by shock still managed to avoid it. The two brothers punched and kicked at each other for several seconds before breaking free of the hand to hand combat and turning on each other with magic. The air was filled with colour as their spells flashed through the air.

There battle became more intense and they started to move away from where the fight had begun. There were cries of shock as civilians moved to get out of the way of the spell blasting from the two brothers. A blast from Malfurion sent Illidan flying and he landed in the water a few meters away. As he was about to stand and attack back he became aware of somebody standing over him. Looking up he saw Tyrande standing there.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH BOTH OF YOU!" she yelled at them.

"I'm sorry Tyrande I don't know what came over me, I shouldn't have attacked back" Malfurion said with a certain amount of shame in his voice.

She turned to Illidan next "Why?" said asked him.

He shrugged 'because you two like each other don't you, because he was looking down on me as usual' Illidan thought. "Because he was being judgemental and annoying" he said.

Tyrande sighed "I can't take this anymore Illidan. I'm done with this, we're done" she said.

Illidan looked at her in shock "You're breaking up with me. Why?".

Tyrande looked back at him "After everything do I really need to answer that?" she said.

Then she turned and walked away leaving Illidan hurt and confused.

Sylvanas

Sylvanas stood at the door to one of the dungeons which had temporarily been converted into a morgue. She watched the woman in the centre of the room sobbing as she stared down at her dead son. The boy's name had been Blake, he was eleven and he had worked in the stables till Arthas had killed him. It was his blood she had seen on Arthas's blade

that morning. Blake's mother's name was Audrey and she worked in the kitchen Sylvanas had learnt. Audrey screamed and sobbed as Sylvanas watched.

'This is my fault' Sylvanas thought 'he would never have been killed if it wasn't for me killing Arthas's stupid horse'. She had known that Arthas would be angry and retaliate but she never imagined this as the consequence. She looked back at the boy on the table. There was blood and mud in his brown hair and his skin was so pale. His clothes were soaked in blood and some of it had transferred on to his mother's clothes but she didn't seem to care. 'Arthas truly is a monster' she thought as she watched the mother's pain. She was starting to understand the possible cost of her problems with Arthas, their fighting had already taken the life of a child who did not deserve to die and many more people could die before it was over.

The woman then turned and noticed Sylvanas watching her. She hurriedly got to her feet and bowed.

"My Queen, I'm so sorry I didn't see you there. How may I be of service?" she said between sobs.

"There is no need to apologies. I'm the one who should be sorry not you. I'm so sorry for loss" Sylvanas said.

Andrey nodded "Thank you, my Queen" she said.

Sylvanas came over and stood beside her giving her a closer look at the boy on the table. As a warrior she was use to death and tearful families but this was something else. With the dead rangers telling the family that they died bravely offered some small amount of comfort but their was no words of comfort that could be offered to a woman that had just lost her son because the King had randomly decided to kill him. Arthas would never be punished with this kid's murder because he was the King, he made the laws and the boy was just a servant. Audrey turned to her and hugged her. Sylvanas could have pushed her away but nothing she could say or do would bring this woman's child back.

"Why did he have to die? Why did the King have to kill him? He was a good boy and he died over a horse" Audrey sobbed.

"I'm sorry" Sylvanas told her. 'Arthas you will pay for this you sick son of bitch. One of these days I will kill you' she vowed to herself.

Arthas

Arthas stood in the pouring rain. He stared down at the hole in the ground that the servants were filling in. At the top of the grave a stone was placed that stated that it was Invincible whose grave it was and a few other words. Arthas was dressed in all black as were all of the nobles that attend court that were now attending the funeral. They all thought it was ridiculous that he would hold such a service for his horse but they all were attending anyway to try score extra points with the King. Arthas stood and said a few words for his fallen friend. After he had spoken the ceremony ended. Arthas was still very angry with Sylvanas but for now he would be happy to get divorced.

"I'm sorry for your loss King Arthas" a noble man said to him.

"Yes, Invincible will be missed" he said 'Sylvanas, I will kill you for this one day' he silently vowed to himself.


	6. All say goodbye

One month later

Arthas

Arthas ran his hands through his hair making sure it was neat and tidy. Today was the day of his divorce. He would be attending a special court to legally settle things. As Arthas was King of Lordaeron Varian would be coming, there would be one of Arthas's Marshals and then the Lordaeron Judge. The Marshal and Varian would advise the Judge on what was politically best for Lordaeron in the outcome of the divorce. Arthas hurried down the stairs to breakfast, he was sort of excited at the prospect of divorce. Perhaps Jaina would be more interested in him now. He ate breakfast hurriedly in the dining room.

"Is there anything else I can get for you your majesty?" the pretty red hair kitchen maid said.

"No I'm good" Arthas said 'I wonder whether I've hooked up with this one before. If not perhaps I could hook up with her after hopefully getting divorced today' Arthas thought.

The maid nodded and headed back towards the kitchen.

"So what's your name?" Arthas called out to the maid.

She looked at him looking surprised and disappointed "You don't remember?"

'Should I?' Arthas thought "No I don't".

She sighed "It's Bria".

"So tell me Bria have we slept together before?" he asked.

"You don't remember that either" she said sounding hurt.

"I'm sure you're very memorable but I've been with many pretty woman so it can be difficult to remember all of them. Maybe after my divorce we could head up to my chambers and get to know each other a little better" Arthas said.

That sent her running for the kitchen.

'Why is everybody always running away from me?' he wondered.

Sylvanas

Sylvanas was in a very good mood this morning. Her hellish marriage to Arthas was almost over and then she would return to Quel'thalas. She had decided to try one thing before her marriage ended and the divorce processing concluded. She was going to try stuff Arthas over as much as possible. To do this she was going to do something she should have done a long time ago.

She dressed quickly and after that rode out of the city on her horse to meet the party from Stormwind. It was lightly raining as Sylvanas waited but she didn't really mind. The sound of hoofbeats behind her drew her gaze. She saw Audrey riding towards her on a chestnut brown horse.

"Are you sure it's okay to be doing this my lady?" Audrey asked her "I mean I'm only a servant. Couldn't I get in trouble for this"

Sylvanas smiled "I'm still the Queen for now and I say its fine. Besides this is a good opportunity to speak to Varian before Arthas could stop you. Remember this will be your best chance to get any kind of justice for Blake".

Audrey nodded "If you say so my lady".

Sylvanas had agreed with Audrey that her son Blake hadn't deserved to die. As soon as she'd heard that Varian would be attending their divorce she'd explained to Audrey that it was her best chance to get justice for her son. The truth could set a person free but in Arthas's case Sylvanas hoped the truth about who he was and what he had done would make his life difficult.

"Horses my lady" Audrey called out to her.

Sylvanas looked up and saw she was right. Several horses were heading towards them.

Varian and his company reached her in less than a minute.

"Lady Sylvanas, how nice of you to ride out to meet us" Varian called out as he reached her.

Sylvanas smiled at him "King Varian it's so good to see you".

"Who's your friend?" Varian asked.

"This is Audrey, she works as a kitchen maid. She has a story to tell you about Arthas. Would you mind riding back to the city with us and Audrey could tell you on the way back" Sylvanas said.

Varian nodded "Of course my lady" he said.

Audrey told Varian about the horror of her son's death as they rode back to the city. 'Hopefully Varian will be able to do something about this and hopefully Arthas will be in trouble' she thought to herself.

They reached the stables and got off their horses.

"Thank you for bring this to me I'll do what I can" Varian told Audrey as he climbed down from his horse.

"Thank you for listening your majesty" Audrey replied as she began to take the horses into the stable.

Varian extended a hand to help Sylvanas down from her horse.

'I don't need your help' she thought but she took his hand anyway. 'Stay polite you'll get nowhere if he doesn't believe you' she told herself.

Varian turned to one of the men he had brought with him and said "Commander I wish to speak to lady Sylvanas alone. Please head up to the palace we will be fine on our own and I'll met you there later"

The Stormwind troops all bowed and followed the Commander up to the palace leaving Sylvanas and Varian alone together.

"May we take a walk my lady?" Varian asked her.

"Of course Varian but you can drop the formalities" Sylvanas replied.

Varian nodded and the two of them took a walk around the paddock and the palace gardens.

"Why did you bring this matter to me? You must know there is very little I can do to help as much as I may want to. Arthas is King of Lordaeron, it would be difficult to prove that the boy committed no treason or whatever crime Arthas accused him of to justify his actions" Varian told her.

"I know" Sylvanas replied "but that's just one of many stories since I've been Queen here and before I leave my role as Queen you need to know the truth"

Varian looked at her for a moment "There's something else isn't there"

Sylvanas nodded "Yes, you were right to question the death of Arthas's father because Arthas murdered him. He did it so he could be King".

Tyrande

Tyrande sat on a little chair overlooking the lake waiting for Illidan. She and Malfurion had both agreed to speak with him. She suspected that he wanted to try resume their relationship, so far he'd made several attempts since they'd broken up with all of them being in vain.

'If he suggests that we get back together I'm going to leave' Tyrande thought.

At that moment Illidan walked onto the balcony. He had his weapons and backpack on his back.

"Thank you for meeting me here" he told them.

"It's no problem, You're my brother Illidan and I want to work things out between us so of course I came to meet you" Malfurion said.

Tyrande didn't say anything but she gave Illidan a small nod.

"Right well I wanted to tell you both that I'm leaving" Illidan said.

Tyrande stood quickly from her chair "Where are you going?" she asked him.

"I don't know. I'm going to prove to you that the demons have no hold on me. I'll wander Azeroth looking to find any sign of them and when I find them then I will prove how they've got no hold over me" Illidan said.

"That's good of you to try Illidan but what do you hope to accomplish by this, you might not even find any demons" Malfurion told him.

"Tyrande I hope that if I can prove that the demons have no hold on me you will be willing to give our relationship another go. At least try to work things out" Illidan said.

Tyrande nodded "Of course Illidan"

He smiled "Thank you Tyrande" then he headed for the door.

She headed to the door and hugged him.

"You come back in one piece okay" she told him.

"Illidan grinned "Of course I'll come back in one piece. I'm really good at magic. Those demons won't know what hit them"

'And now he's being all egotistical again. I hope that doesn't get you killed Illidan and good luck' she thought as he walked away.

Varian

Varian headed up to the palace thinking over what Sylvanas had just told him. It did make sense what she had said about Arthas killing his father and her suggestion of making Calia Queen of Lordaeron in Arthas's place was a good one. The trick would be proving that Arthas had killed his father.

"Commander I need you to look into the death of King Terenas Menethil" he said to the Commander of the soldiers he had brought with him.

The Commander nodded "Yes your majesty, but if I might ask why do you want me to look into this?"

"Just bring me the report of death if you can" Varian told him.

Varian headed into the courtroom and listened to the judge discuss the legal matters of the divorce. It was also discussed who would get what when they finalised their divorce. Neither Sylvanas nor Arthas argued much about the settlement. As far as Varian could tell they both just seemed happy to almost be done with each other. While he listened to the judge talking through the legal settlement he briefly spoke to one of the marshals about the fact that Arthas may in fact have killed his father and the marshal left slightly later speaking with the other grand marshals. Varian sat through hours of court proceedings before finally they stopped for a break in which Varian the judge and several grand marshals would settle some final things. Varian exited the courtroom and found the Commander waiting for him.

"What did you find?" he asked

"Here the report written by the morgue attendant your majesty and the visitor log from that day" the Commander said as he passed him the report and the log.

Varian read through the details carefully. The weapon used it the murder could quite likely be Arthas sword and the visitor log record that Arthas had scheduled to see his father right before he died but had never shown up. This was the copy of the log that Arthas hadn't destroyed.

Varian hurried to the meeting he now had. Where they would discuss things before the judge settled Arthas and Sylvanas's divorce and Varian would need to sign off on it. When he reached the meeting room he found the judge twelve of the highest ranking grand marshals and Arthas five advisors waiting for him.

"Sorry I'm late" Varian told them "I was reading over these reports"

"You think King Arthas killed his father?" the advisor who had a big nose said

"Do you disagree?" Varian asked him

"King Varian we have been relatively sure that King Arthas killed his father for months. The problem is proving it. However after polling the people we have come to another solution about what to do with Arthas being such a terrible King" the chubby advisor told him as he past him the results of the poll.

Varian read the poll quickly "My my Arthas isn't very popular. Only three percent want him to remain King" Varian stated as he read the result.

"Yes, there are many people stating that they don't want a Menethil to be on the throne at all" the advisor replied.

"What about Calia twenty five percent of people say they would be happy for her to take the throne" Varian said

"Yes your majesty but the percentage of people who don't want a Menethil on the throne at all is at sixty three percent" the advisor replied.

"Do you have another opinion?" Varian asked.

"As it happens we do. Judge are you finished reading?" the big nosed adviser said.

"Here King Varian, all it requires is your signature to be put into effect" the judge said handing it over.

Varian read through the proposed leadership change. He just about said no. But instead he stopped and thought.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked

"Yes, it's only temporary as it states we will change it again in five years time" the advisor replied.

Varian looked around the room before he signed the document.

'Arthas is going to hate this' he thought.

Arthas

A bell sounded telling him it was time to return to court. Arthas stood and headed into the courtroom. As soon as he entered he was presented with some documents. He quickly read through it. Basically it stated that if he signed he'd be divorced. Arthas hurriedly signed the document and then passed it on so Sylvanas could sign it.

At that moment Varian tapped him on the shoulder and Arthas turned to look at him.

"It seems you've pissed a lot of people of in your time as King. About what the judge is about to read out, I might have been mad with you but I got out voted on this. Sorry, but everybody kind of hates you" Varian told him.

'What the hell is he on about' Arthas wondered.

He didn't have to wonder long. At that moment the judge stood holding a piece of paper in his hand.

"Ladies and Gentlemen due to the current unpopularity of King Arthas and the fact that he is suspected in the murder of his father we have decide in favor of removing him as King" the judge began.

Arthas's heart sunk. How could they do that. He looked around the room and saw Sylvanas smirking.

'I will make you pay for that' he thought to himself 'I will make them all pay for this'. "YOU CAN'T REMOVE ME AS KING!" Arthas yelled at them.

"Yes we can. For your divorce you handed legal control temporarily to King Varian so as the King he could have you divorced. All we needed was his signature" the judge replied with a smile.

Arthas screamed "BASTARDS YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS! YOU'LL PAY DEARLY FOR THIS!"

"And until feeling about the Menethil family change leadership of Lordaeron will pass to a council of twelve of the highest rank Grand Marshals. After five years the kingdom will pass on to Princess Calia Menethil" the judge said.

Arthas could only stare in horror. He was very angry now.

'I'll kill them, I'll kill them all' he thought.

One of the marshal that was taking his throne stood and passed another document to the judge.

The judge took the document and looked at it.

"Lastly I put forward this proposal earlier today and as soon as the marshals were appointed as rulers of Lordaeron they signed making this law" the judge said.

'What now' Arthas thought.

"As Arthas Menethil is suspected in the murder of his father King Terenas he is hereby banished from the kingdom of Lordaeron and should he return he shall face the death penalty" the judge read.

"HOW CAN YOU? LORDAERON IS MY HOME!" Arthas yelled.

There was a stunned silence around the room.

"Why do you hate me so much?" he asked the judge.

The judge looked at him "You dishonored my daughter by treating her like another one of your whores, by having another of your famous one night stands"

Arthas sighed, For now he had no choice.

'Sylvanas can wait. I get my revenge on her later. For now I must leave Lordaeron but when I return it won't be me who will face the death penalty. It will be twelve grand marshals, five very annoying advisors and one complete shit of a judge' Arthas thought as he left the courtroom.

 **Author notes: I am aware that the percentage thing can be confusing. The percentages aren't meant to add to 100% as they are meant to be different questions. I apologies for any confusion this may cause.**


	7. Betrayal

Sylvanas

Sylvanas rode across the country side the wind blowing her golden hair. She was happy. Today she was free of Arthas and finally going home to Quel'thalas. Several guards had been dispatched to make sure she made it home safely, not that she felt she needed them, they were only slowing her down. Still it was a good day, the sun was high in the sky shining it's light down upon them. She had been pleased to see Arthas loose Lordaeron although she had never thought they'd take it so far.

"My lady may we slow down a bit?" one of the guards asked her.

"Certainly not. We must keep moving we are nearly there. Beside we've taken far too long already" she said.

She didn't want to slow or stop, she just wanted to go home.

An hour later they were on the edge of Silvermoon city. Sylvanas felt such joy and excitement to see her home again. She increased her speed and ignored the protest of the guards behind her. She rode as fast as she could to farstrider square where she would find the Ranger General's office. It didn't take her long to reach the Ranger General's office. When she did she stepped down from her horse and hurried inside. The reception looked up as she entered.

"Can I help you?" she began before she realized who it was "My lady, it's good to see you back!"

Sylvanas nodded "Yes thank you is the Ranger General here?" she asked. 'What's her name again?' she thought as she tried to recall the answer.

"Yes, they are about to leave though. I'll tell him you're here and then I'll see when I can fit you in to see him" the receptionist said.

Sylvanas watched and waited as she got up and headed into the office. She didn't have to wait long. Lor'themar was there within about thirty seconds a huge smile on his face.

She smiled "Lor'themar it's good to see you. It's been so long"

"It has" he replied.

They hugged.

"I got divorced" Sylvanas told him "You were right"

"I'm sorry. I know you didn't want things to go like that" Lor'themar said

"No" she replied "But I'm glad to be rid of him. Arthas was a monster"

Lor'themar nodded "Listen I've got to lead the farstriders out on another mission but would you like to come with us?" he asked her.

"Of course I would" Sylvanas replied. Nothing would make her happier.

Arthas

Arthas sat on the deck of a ship bound for Northrend. He was still very angry. If anything he was even angrier than when he had actually lost his kingdom. Why he was going to Northrend he could not say but he felt it was a good idea. He would find several allies and then he would make Lordaeron itself pay of betraying him. At the moment the ship's captain walked over to him.

"Is everything satisfactory my lord?" the Captain asked him.

"No, everything is not satisfactory. My cabin is far too small, My bed to hard, I thought I asked for the Captain's cabin, The food is terrible, It's too cold and the ship's rocking is unbearable" Arthas told him.

"You do have the Captain's cabin" the Captain replied "The rest of the crew sleeps in far worse all the time"

Arthas stated at him trying to work out whether or not he was joking. Evenally he decided that he wasn't.

"You peasants truly are living in a terrible state of poverty then" Arthas told the Captain.

The Captain seem to decide it was best to leave Arthas to his sulking after that. Arthas ate his dinner alone in his quarters. It was a disgusting fish soup that Arthas would have normally had the cook's head of for it but it was all he had and he was starving. At that moment the ship rocked and Arthas spilt half his soup on himself. He swore very loudly when this happened.

'How dare they take my kingdom. How dare they condemn me to such a life. I will make them suffer for this' he silently vowed to himself.

Illidan

Illidan had travelled far but it was becoming clear to him that his plan of finding the demons and proving that he wasn't under their control would be harder than he thought. The main reason was that demons didn't just hang out on Azeroth waiting for the next burning legion invasion attempt. Therefore Illidan had come up with a plan that he suspected his brother would disapprove of. He would open a portal to wherever the demons were coming from and that would allow for either him to go through and fight them or them to come through and him to fight them. Illidan searched through items from the last burning legion invasion to get a sense of how to open a portal between their worlds. He knew it was possible as Azshara had done it.

After several hours of searching Illidan had almost given up. Nothing here would help him find what he was looking for.

'If only I had a way to contact them then he could easily find them' Illidan thought to himself.

As he thought this he remember how Azshara had done it. Throught the use of the well Sargeras had found them and Azeroth and used magic to make contact.

'I'm going to have to do something big to get their attention' Illidan realized.

He would come up with a plan to do that and then he would prove himself. He already could think of a way to do it but he had not idea how Malfurion and Tyrande would feel about it.

Malfurion

As Malfurion read through the many letters he'd revived he thought of his brother. He wondered where he was and how he was doing. He hoped his brother hadn't done something incredibly foolish but he was concern that the whole venture was foolish.

'I should never have let him go so easily. I should have told him it was foolish' he thought.

Tyrande was having the same doubt he knew even though he had only spoken to her briefly since Illidan had left.

'No good can come from delwing on regrets' he told himself and he decided to take a walk to clear his head.

There was a light breeze but other than that the day was warm. As Malfurion walked the sun seemed to shine down upon him. Malfurion smiled, it was a nice day and he might as well enjoy it. He reached the temple where the sisters of Elune spent much of their time. As he approached he saw Tyrande talking with a few others. A little butterfly circled their heads and Tyrande held out her hand. Malfurion watch her and the others smile and laugh as the butterfly landed on her outstretched palm. All he could think was that she looked very beautiful and that it was good to see her so happy. He tried to clear his head of such thought because he knew where such thoughts could lead him and he strongly doubted things between him and Illidan could ever be brotherly again if he followed such thoughts. At that moment Tyrande noticed him. She said something to the others and then smiled and ran over to him.

"Malfurion it's good to see you. What can I do for you?" she said her tone friendly.

"I was just thinking about Illidan and decide to take a walk" he replied.

She nodded "May I walk with you?" she asked him.

"Yes of course" he replied.

They discussed the foolishness of Illidan's plan in great length as they walked around the city. After they had said everything they could think of they moved on to the nice weather and then how the training of the druids was going for Malfurion and the training of the priestess for Tyrande. Malfurion realised how good it felt to just talk. They listened to each other and share their feelings. Malfurion was about to discuss the work he'd been doing before leaving for the walk when he realised that they must have been walking and talking for several hours.

"Forgive me Tyrande, I must return to my office I've got work to do" he told her.

"Of course. I'll walk you back to your office then" she replied.

It didn't take them long to reach his office. He'd expected that Tyrande would leave as soon as she reached his office but she didn't. Instead she accompanied him inside.  
"Would you like something to drink? I think I've got something here" Malfurion said as he looked through the cupboards.

"Yes, please. Thank you Malfurion" Tyrande replied as she sat down in a chair.

Malfurion found the bottle he was looking for and two cups. He filled both cups and handed one to her. They both drank then Malfurion stood.

"Thank you Tyrande. I had a wonderful time today. It felt so good to just talk" he told her.

She smiled stood and came close to him "Thank you Malfurion I feel the same" she told him.

They slowly began to drift closer together until they lips touched. They kissed passionately, all thoughts of his brother and the work he was suppose to do forgotten.

Arthas

Arthas woke early, not that he had gotten much sleep anyway. The ship's rocking had kept him awake and woken him several times. Now that the light was beginning to show through the small window in his cabin Arthas decided that there was no point trying to return to sleep. He climbed out of bed and found the clothes he had decided to wear that day. It didn't take him long to dress. Within a few minutes he was walking out on the deck. Like every other day, the morning out on the sea was cold. Arthas wore and thick coat but it was still cold. He looked out over the side of the ship at the sun rising over the sea. The smell that filled his nostrils was the salty smell of the sea. Arthas hated that smell but in his time aboard the ship he had learnt that the sailors loved it and didn't think the world was right without it. He'd come to the conclusion that they were all mentally challenged to think such a thing.

The sound of yelling and fight drew his gaze. He turned to see two sailors fighting on the deck. He watched as they threw punches and kicks at one another. Already other sailors were pouring out on the deck to see what all the fighting was about.

Then they all began to chant "Fight, fight, fight" in delight as the two men punched each other.

'How very uncivilised these filthy peasants are' he thought as he watch them. A tap on the shoulder snapped out of his thoughts about the peasants. He turned to see the captain's daughter holding a tray of food.

"Breakfast m'lord" she said.

Arthas took the tray and looked at what she'd brought him. It appeared he would be having smoked fish again.

"Why more bloody fish?" he asked her "I'm sick of fish. I never wish to see another fish in my life!"

She looked down at the deck "I'm sorry m'lord but that's all we really have"

Arthas groaned "Fine I'll eat this crap for lack of something better but this ship should be providing me with better"

The girl nodded then hurried away. Arthas was being the suspect that since he'd never meet the cook in his time aboard the ship that it was her that made all those awful meals he'd had to endure.

Arthas sat down and ate as much of the horrible fish meal as he could endure and then threw the rest into the sea. He was angry and full of self pity at the moment. He couldn't understand how the world had been so cruel to him. Why he now had to live like a peasant because they had stolen his throne. He shivered in the chill of the cold day and looked up.

'I will have my revenge though. I'm not going to let them get away with this. I won't let them get what they want, me to die in the life of a mere peasant' he swore to himself.

As he looked over the edge of the ship in the direction they were heading he saw his destination in the distance, the coastline of Northrend. He could only hope that he would find something of use to his goal here. That this horrid trip north had not been for nothing.

'At least I'll probably get to eat something other that fish when I come on shore' Arthas thought. After the last few days of being on the ship that thought alone excited him.

Tyrande

The light flowed in through the window and Tyrande open her eyes. The morning had come at last but it met that she would now need to consider what she had done last night. She turned over in the bed and looked at Malfurion who lay beside her. Much to her relief he was still asleep. She slowly climbed out of the bed and picked up her clothes from the floor. She then dressed as fast as she could. She hoped to leave before Malfurion woke. She knew it was rude and could hurt his feelings but she didn't feel like explain that perhaps they'd made a mistake last night.

She finished dressing and then left. The day was bright and sunny. The warmth of the sun warmed her skin as she walked.

'I can't believe Malfurion betrayed Illidan like that. I can't believe I betrayed Illidan like that' she thought. Technically her and Illidan had broken up but she was still sure that he would be very angry to learn that she had slept with his brother. She had also told Illidan that if he succeeded in his mission then she'd give their relationship another go. For that reason alone she knew that she had betrayed Illidan, that was why it was so wrong. However the problem was for something that was so wrong it felt so right and she knew it was quite possible that it could happen again.

Tyrande sighed 'I guess that I'll just avoid Malfurion from now on' she thought.

 **Author notes: Sorry about any spelling errors, I usually spent more time check my work but I'm feeling at the moment that the rest of the story has taken me longer than I'd hoped and therefore I wanted to get this chapter up as soon as possible.**


	8. Dark Plans

**Author notes: Sorry about the long wait for this chapter, the release of the warcraft movie and legion trailers have renewed my motivation to write this. Also apologies about the length of this of this chapter it a lot longer that the other chapters and also a filler that needs to be there to get on to Arthas destroying Lordaeron and the attack on Quel'thalas.**

Arthas

The air was cold but Arthas kept pushing forward, he had to. He was dressed warmly enough with a thick fur coat, fur boots and so on. Getting clothes warm enough to keep him alive in the cold of Northrend was one of the first things he'd seen to when he'd arrive. It had been a few weeks since he'd arrived and he'd made several plans as to how he was going to reclaim his city and his throne. At the moment he had a meeting with some frost troll mercenaries that he hoped he could offer a large sum of money to get their help taking Lordaeron back. His plan was simple, he would say that he would pay the mercenaries a high percentage of gold and gems from the castle vault. If necessary he would pay it but if not he would settle the debt by ordering the remaining guards to kill them. He wanted to reclaim his kingdom but he would prefer not to lose any of his gold over it. Not when backstabbing was still a good option.

Arthas looked up from his trudging through the snow to see the mercenaries camp, he had arrived at his destination. There were several little huts surrounding a larger one in the middle. To Arthas even the large one in the middle was too small to be called a house, although he felt that many of the peasant under his rule lived in shacks not houses.

'These people must be poor' Arthas thought as he studied the buildings 'Only the lowest of peasants would live in such a place'.

As he thought this the trolls leader came out of his hut to greet Arthas "Welcome to our village mon. We will be discussing business now, ja?"

'Oh it's a village? I thought it was like several little farming family house you can find grouped together in Lordaeron' Arthas thought but he chose his words more carefully "Yes it's a nice place you've got here. I'd love to discuss business now" he said with a huge fake smile.

The inside the tiny hut was at least warm and out of the wind. There was a fire going in a brazier in the centre of the room which warmed the place up. There were some benches made from some dark wood near the brazier which Arthas supposed had been set up for this discussion. To Arthas the benches looked very uncomfortable but he stayed silent about that and thanked the lead troll when he was offered the bench to sit on. It what just as uncomfortable as he had predicted but complaining was unlikely to get him what he needed.

'I have to remember that I'm not the King anymore. People won't do things for me because I'm better than them now even though they still should because I am still far better than them' Arthas thought.

"So what ja be wanting with my mercenaries mon?" the troll ask him

'Idiot. What anybody else wants mercenaries for. To pay them lots of money to kill people. Why does everybody always ask such stupid questions?' he thought but instead he said "I need to hire some mercenaries to help me take back the Kingdom of Lordaeron. I'd be willing to pay an enormous amount of gold from the castle vaults after retaking the Kingdom for your help".

Arthas watched the troll leader as he said this. There was about twenty second of silence well the troll thought about his offer.

"Some money after?" the troll asked finally.

"Yes. I'll pay you half the gold in the castle vault" Arthas replied

The troll thought for a bit longer "Gold after is no good. Taking a city is not an easy thing to accomplish. Several of my men will die and for your promise that you will pay us after. For all I know we could help you take the Kingdom and then you could betray us or just not pay us. I would not like to be betrayed and therefore it's to much of a risk"

Arthas stayed silent and thought 'He's definitely smarter than I gave him credit for. However I only have limited money since they took Lordaeron. Most of the money I could have used for this was the Kingdom's money and not my own personal money'. He thought for a while longer before coming to a decision about what he should do. "Not to far from here there an Alliance base. Perhaps I could turn some of my wealth into something much more to your liking" he said.

The troll nodded "Return to us in three days and we can negotiate a deal then"

"Yes in three days" Arthas replied then he left the hut and the village altogether.

He knew full well that he could never come up with an amount of money that would satisfy the trolls pay before policy and even if he did he couldn't risk that they would try kill him and take his gold. At the moment that seemed like a very real possibility. Arthas was not pleased about the possibility that they were trying to steal for him or questioning his word. He would return to them but not to discuss a deal. He would return to teach the world and the next group he would deal with what happens when they question him.

-  
Illidan

The rain poured down upon him but he was determined not to let it stop him. It had taken a bit of thinking to come up with his plan and he had attempted to compare it to other ideas before deciding that it was the best idea. Soon he would return home and would put his plan into action and show all the night elves that the demons had no hold on him. His boots oozed in the mud that was being formed by the rain but he still kept going. It only took him a few more minutes to reach the city. He had planned to go straight home and find what he required to make his plan work but he decided to go visit Tyrande first. He headed for the temple of Elune, hurrying between houses he reached his destination in a few minutes. Normally he would probably wait outside for her but he had no idea when she would be coming out of the temple and he couldn't wait. He hurried inside and quickly made his way to the part in the temple where she taught her students. Although he normally didn't come into temple he had been in before and knew his way around. He headed to her office first but was not really surprised that she wasn't there. Illidan found her quickly after that, she was standing in the centre of a room explaining one of Elune's principles to about a dozen students. Illidan waited patiently for her to notice him. He knew she would be mad if he interrupted.

Much to Illidan's displeasure it took her about ten minutes to notice him waiting there.

"That's enough for today. Class dismissed" she said when she noticed him.

'About time. I swear I could have completed my entire plan and perhaps slayed hundreds of demons in the time it's taken for her to notice me' Illidan thought to himself.

"Illidan your back!" she said "How did your mission go"

She was smiling but Illidan noticed that her eyes were focused more towards the ground that on him.

'She's not meeting my gaze. Is she still mad with me? How do I make it better?' he wondered. "My mission is still to be completed I need something from the house first before I can prove to you that the demons have no hold on me" he told her.

She nodded "Yes, I'll come with you. I believe you can stop the demons if we ever need you to but why are you doing this? You don't have anything to prove to me"

That confused Illidan "But you're the one that said people believe that the demons still had a hold on me. Why aren't you happy that I'm doing this" 'Seriously what does it take to impress this girl?' he wondered.

She sighed "Illidan that was about your use of arcane magic, not this. Let's just get going okay"

They reached the house in a few minutes but Illidan very nearly complained about how long it was taking. By the time they reached the house Tyrande still hadn't met his gaze, a fact that was really starting to both him.

'Perhaps she hopes I won't achieve my mission because she said we could be together if I succeed but what if she doesn't want to be with me? What if she assumed that I'd fail' he thought. He couldn't help but think this sort of thing.

He managed to briefly clear his head of this thought and focus on the task. He hurried into the bedroom and lifted the loose floorboard under the bed and reached down to grab the three vials at the bottom. Then he stood up and smiled holding the vials in his hand like and trophy.

"Illidan what is that?" Tyrande asked him her gaze focused on the vials.

"This is the future but it is also how I intend to summon some demons to kill. Come I'll show you what it does".

He lead her outside and over to a pond of water. Then he poured all three vials in.

"What was that? What are you doing?" Tyrande asked him

"That was water from the well of eternity. This will create a new well of a eternity which will return our former glory of magic powers. Our people can thank me later" he said proudly.

The look on Tyrande's face confused him. She was looking horrified and Illidan couldn't work out why.

"ILLIDAN DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'VE JUST DONE?" she yelled at him

"YES I DO! THE WELL OF ETERNITY WILL BRING US GREAT POWERS AND MAKE OUR SOCIETY GREAT AGAIN PLUS THIS IS HOW I PROVE MYSELF TO YOU!" he yelled back at her.

She stared at him "IF YOU TRULY WANT TO PROVE YOURSELF TO ME YOU NEVER WOULD HAVE DONE SUCH A THING. YOU'VE PUT US ALL AT RISK!".

Their argument was drawing other night elves.

"YOU RECREATED THE WELL OF ETERNITY? HOW COULD YOU?" yelled one spectator

"TRAITOR" yelled another

"DEMON WORSHIPER" yelled a third.

Illidan didn't hear what the rest of them said, the yelling from all of them become too much to single out what anybody had said.

"WHATS GOING ON HERE?" Malfurion voice called out over the elves.

The elves parted and allowed his brother through. Illidan sighed, if the elves around him couldn't understand he seriously doubted his brother would.

He looked up and gave his brother a fake smile "Malfurion how good to see you" he said

"What did you do?" Malfurion asked him.

Illidan glazed back at Tyrande before answering. She was now looking at the ground and if anything avoiding eye contact more with Malfurion than she was him.

'What did I miss?' he wondered "Brother why must you alway assume I did something wrong. I've recreated the well of eternity that will bring the magic we use to have back. Now's the part where you thank me" he told his brother.

Malfurion looked shocked "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT? WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?"

Illidan shrugged "I don't know, it seemed like a good idea"

"And it's how you plan to summon these demon you intend to fight" Malfurion added

"Yep" Illidan replied

"You've put all of us at risk" Malfurion told him

"KILL HIM SHAN'DO STORMRAGE" a few night elves yelled.

Malfurion thought for a moment then he turn to the crowd and said "Are any of the warden's here?"

Two women stepped forward from the crowd.

"You wish us to arrest him?" the leading one asked

"Indeed. I assume you still have room for him at the prison?" Malfurion asked.

She nodded "Of course. I'll take him right away"

"Thank you Maiev" Malfurion said as she came over to put him in chains.

As Maiev finished clamping the chains on his arm he notice Malfurion and Tyrande briefly made eye contact then turned away from each other with a look that Illidan realised was shame. Something did happen between them Illidan realised, but whether it was something as small as a kiss or something more Illidan did not know. But whatever it was they felt shame about it, probably because they felt they betrayed him. Illidan glared at his brother as Maiev and the other woman pulled him away to the prison. He would find out what happened but he knew that things between him and his brother weren't over. Illidan imagined that they would fight again.

Sylvanas

Sylvanas sat on a comfortable chair in a large room at the Windrunner spire, her home. She was reading a book with a red cover and quite frankly that was the most interesting thing about it. She had actually forgotten what the book was about but since she wasn't Queen or Ranger General anymore she had little else to do. Not that she was complaining, she was glad to free of Arthas.

At that moment there came a knock at the door downstairs. Normally Sylvanas wouldn't have heard it but the house was quiet and they had knocked pretty loudly.

"I'll get it my lady" one of the servants called out to her.

Sylvanas attempted to turn her focus back to the novel to at least finish the page she was on but it was so dull that she just put it on the table beside her within a few words. Instead of reading she straightened her hair and prepared herself to see whoever was at the door.

"King Anasterian Sunstrider to see you my lady" the servant said as she returned with the King at her side.

Sylvanas hurried to her feet and bowed at the site of her King.

"What can I do for you your majesty?" she asked him politely. She hadn't realised how accustomed she'd become to people calling her 'your majesty' and not the other way around.

"It's good to see you Sylvanas. Have you settled back into life in Quel'thalas?" the King said

"Yes your majesty. It's quite a change from Lordaeron but I'm glad to be home" she replied.

The King nodded "Would you like your old job as the Ranger General back?" he asked her.

Sylvanas froze for a moment in thought. She would like her old job back more than anything but there was one problem with that.

"What about Lor'themar?" she asked her King

"This was actually his idea. He will return to being your second in command should you accept" he replied.

Sylvanas felt her heart beat faster with excitement. She wanted to be Ranger General but she wanted to check that Lor'themar really was okay with it first.

"Will you give me till tomorrow to decide?" she asked him.

"Yes. Come to the palace tomorrow with your decision" the King replied.

After the King left Sylvanas hurried to Lor'themar's office which would be her office again should she accept the King's offer. The receptionist informed her that Lor'themar was out on business so Sylvanas waited. She hoped that she wouldn't have to wait long but she knew how busy the Ranger General could get. She waited for about half an hour for Lor'themar to return. He seemed to appear all of a sudden, she had not heard him or his hawkstrider outside.

"Lor'themar, I didn't hear you come in " she stood and smiled as he entered.

He smiled at her "Sylvanas it good to see you. To what do I owe the pleasure"

"Can I speak to you in your office?" she asked him.

Lor'themar smiled and nodded "Of course, this way" he said and together they headed into his office.

The office was warm. The light and heat of the sun poured in through the window casting a warm glow about the place.

"Please take a seat" Lor'themar said indicating the chairs in his office.

Sylvanas sat down and said "The King offered me the Ranger General's position back"

Lor'themar nodded "Well you are a very good Ranger General of course he asked. Did you say yes?"

"Not yet. I wanted to see how you felt about it first" she replied

"Say yes. I was the one who spoke with the King about it. I feel very happy to just be your second in command" he replied with a smile.

"Really? but why?" she asked him

"Well you want your old job back don't you? It would be a shame to see you having to start at a lower rank again. Besides I meant what I said you're a Good Ranger General"

"Just good?" she asked with a little laugh "but couldn't I have been your second in command instead?"

"Oh come on we both know if you were my second in command you'd end up bossing me around anyway" Lor'themar replied and to that they both laughed.

"Thank you Lor'themar" she said.

She got up and hugged Lor'themar before she left. As she left the office she couldn't help but think 'Arthas would never have done something like this for me. Arthas was always selfish and would never have put me before anything he could have. Lor'themar however just put me before his career. Why didn't I see this before I made the dumbest mistake of my life and married Arthas? Arthas was so selfish and cruel but Lor'themar is kind, strong, brave and most importantly capable of putting others before himself. If only I had chosen to leave with Lor'themar when he asked if I was sure about marrying Arthas'.

Arthas

He was once again trudging through the snow. This time however as opposed to meeting some mercenaries he was heading to the closest Alliance base. If all went according to plan he'd make the mercenaries pay for questioning him. He could see the lights of the base ahead. Even though he was nearly there he knew he would need to quicken his pace, the sun was setting fast and he did not wish the be still trudging around in the snow after it set. It would definitely be a lot colder after dark and it would also be far easier for him to get lost or fall down a crack in the ice. Hurrying he reached the base within half an hour.

"Who are you" a guard asked him.

Arthas pulled back his hood to reveal his face "My name is Arthas Menethil" he told the guard.

"Your majesty" the guard said looking at him in shock. "Come inside your majesty, it's cold out here and we don't want you dying from Hypothermia"

Arthas raised his hood again and smiled as he followed the guard.

'So they don't know about me getting banished from Lordaeron. They still think I'm King. That will be very helpful' Arthas thought to himself.

The guard lead him into the largest building and up to the third floor and into the commander's office.

"Wait here your majesty" the guard told him while pointing at the commanders comfy chair before leaving the room.

Arthas sat down in the commander's chair. It was far more comfortable than anything that Arthas had had since leaving Lordaeron. Perhaps while he was here he could slightly get some of his old lifestyle back.

Arthas was not kept waiting long, the guard returned with the commander shortly after.

"King Arthas, it's a honour to have you here. To what do what owe this pleasure? What are you doing so far north? Where are your men?" the commander asked him.

'My he's very curious' Arthas thought. He knew that if he was to get anything he wanted from coming to the base he would need to lie. For some people telling such lies would have been difficult as they would feel guilty about it but for Arthas it wasn't a problem, he was used to lying to people to benefit himself.

"We came north chasing a security threat to Lordaeron" he began "We found them but they killed all my men and I was the only survivor" he told the commander in a fake tone like he had been through a traumatic experience

"Well you're save now your majesty" the commander told him gently.

Arthas nodded and smiled "Oh thank you, thank you" he said trembling and keeping up the appearance of a traumatized victim.

"We will catch these threats to Lordaeron tomorrow your majesty. In the meantime you should get some rest. You can have my quarters and I'll get someone to bring you something to eat" the commander said kindly.

Arthas nodded "The people of Lordaeron thank you for this" he said still trembling.

The guard that had shown Arthas to the commander lead him to the commander's room. Arthas had been hoping for bigger and better than the room they had given him but it was still far more comfortable than the tent in the snow he'd slept in the night before. Arthas sat down on the bed and was relieved to find that it was indeed quite comfortable.

"Your majesty, dinner" a young man at the door said.

Arthas stood and hurried to collect the tray of food then he sat down at the small desk to eat. The night before he had had meat that he'd hunted and roasted over a fire himself. It had been burnt and tasted so horrible that he wouldn't have eaten it if he'd had anything else. As he had suspected the food that they had severed him that night was far better than anything he'd had in a few days. After dinner he fell asleep very quickly, it was the first time he'd managed to sleep properly in days.

Arthas woke late the next morning. The sun had filled the room with the light of the day. His breakfast was already waiting for him on a tray on the small desk.

'I should have come here earlier' Arthas thought as he ate his breakfast.

There was a knock on the door as he finished eating.

"Come in" he called out

"Your majesty, your finally awake. The commander is waiting for you in his office, to make battle plans" the guard said

Arthas smiled and nodded everything was going exactly as planned. "I shall see him right away" he said.

Several hours later Arthas sat at a small camp waiting for the sun to go down. The commander had not wanted him to come along originally but Arthas had convinced him. The commander had also not liked Arthas plan of attacking under the cover of darkness but he had eventually been convinced that the trolls were a dangerous enemy and it was for the best. Arthas slowly sharpened his sword. He used to like hammers as a weapon but during his last trip to Northrend he had found a very cool sword that he now used all the time. People had said that the sword had a evil look to it, but that was just the way he liked it. He looked up and noticed how dark it had gotten.

"Are we going to attack now?" he asked the commander

"Yes your majesty, if you're ready" the commander replied

"Of course I'm ready!" Arthas snapped at him.

"Okay men, it's time to get justice for the Lordaeronian soldiers" the commander called out to them.

The troops charged towards the troll settlement, the trolls were definitely surprised by the attack. A few trolls were sitting outside and went for their weapons upon realising they were under attack, however they were taken by surprise and were cut down within a few seconds. Other Trolls emerged from the huts and began fighting the Alliance troops. Arthas saw a fire going in the centre of the Troll's village and got an idea. He grabbed a long stick that the trolls would use as a torch and held it out to the flames. The end of it caught alight and Arthas smiled. He hurried over to the nearest hut and touched the flaming torch out to it. The hut caught on fire and Arthas moved on to the next one. Within a few minutes all the huts were on fire and the Trolls were all dead.

Arthas stood amongst the ruins of the Troll settlement. 'Let that be a lesson to any who get in my way. Now that that's taken care of it's time to return to finding a way to teach Lordaeron that same lesson' he thought.

 **Author notes: I am aware the whole Lor'themar stepping aside and allowing Sylvanas to take his job might come across a bit weird. There is two reason for this, 1. Lor'themar is in love with Sylvanas, if it was anybody else he wouldn't 2. It's easier for the sake of the story that Sylvanas goes back to being the Ranger General and this is what I came up with. Also I though that I should mention that in my story Arthas is evil, I decided that since warcraft is so big my story could easily get overly complicated so I decided to cut anything I don't think I need. Arthas being evil without out the Lich King's influence is one example of things I've made simpler. Also I don't play a Troll so I struggled with the Troll speech so feel free to suggest how I could improve it. If you have any questions feel free to ask and I'll try answer as best I can.**


	9. Invasion

**Author's notes : I had originally planned to follow the lore slightly but that is proving to be more difficult than I thought for where I want to go with this so I'll follow it only slightly from now on. As for the suggested Illidan Maiev pairing I've decided that it would be a little weird so this is the closest I'm willing to come.**

Illidan

The cell was dark and cold, he had been locked up for about a week now he assumed. He was judging his assumption on the number of meals that they had brought him, there was no sense of time other than when they brought him meals in the darkness of the dungeon. Illidan could not tell if it was day or night outside or whether it had really only been a week since they'd locked him up or far longer. There was nothing to do in the cell but sit and wait. The guards coming to bring him food or to check on him, was the only contacted he'd had with anyone since being locked up. Most of the watchers that guarded his cell were female. Illidan had taken to hitting on all the female prison guards of lack of anything else to do. It had at least been amusing to see the look on their faces. Illidan sat up as the door to his cell was opened. One of the guards stepped in holding a tray of food which she set down in front of him.

"Thank you beautiful" Illidan said to amuse himself. She didn't reply. Instead she headed straight for the door. As he followed her retreat he saw Maiev standing just outside the door. She was the only one of his guards whose name he knew, he had asked the others for their names but they had never given them. Illidan had actually taken to making names up for the guards, just to give him some way of identifying which one he was dealing with.

"Would you stop hitting on all the guards Illidan. It's getting very annoying" Maiev told him

'It's annoying, how wonderful' Illidan thought he was going to tell her no, but he had a better idea how to do so than just to say it. "What are you jealous? You must know I don't think any of the other guards are as pretty as you Maiev"

She glared at him "See that's what I'm talking about, it's starting to get hard to get people to bring you food when you hit on them all"

Illidan grinned "So? If you're interested we could play a game of Prisoners and Wardens, I'll play the prisoner and and you can be the warden punishing me for being a bad boy" he said.

The look on her face just about made him laugh uncontrollably.

"You're disgusting" she told him.

She headed for the door and quickly locked it behind her.

As soon as she was gone Illidan started laughing. Her disgust amused him and he was in need of amusement while he was staying in the dark cell. He knew she would eventually be back, She was the leader of the watchers so she couldn't keep avoiding him. As Illidan continued to laugh he heard a loud boom noise somewhere outside the prison. The ground beneath him shook. Illidan headed over to the cell door and looked out through a barred hole the size and shape of a window that they used to check on him.  
"What's going on?" he called out but nobody answered him.

Malfurion

Fireballs rained down from the sky as the demons descended upon them. Malfurion was hurrying to give everybody orders.

'This is all Illidan's doing. How did I get stuck with such an idiot of a brother' Malfurion thought to himself as he ordered the troops to get into position and prepare to battle the Burning Legion.

"Malfurion, We need to free Illidan. We'll need his help to defeat them" Tyrande called out to him.

Malfurion thought for a moment. It was true the Illidan was a skilled fighter and his help would probably be of great uses but Malfurion was still mad that Illidan had caused all this trouble in the first place and he didn't want to give him the chance to make things any worse.

"No. We'll leave that monster where he is" he told her. He knew it was a harsh way to speak about his brother but he was too annoyed at the moment to care.

"That monster? Malfurion he's your brother" Tyrande said sounding shocked.

"Yes he is" Malfurion said as he headed away from her to battle the Burning Legion.

Tyrande

Tyrande thought and considered her options carefully. She could join the rest of her race in the fight against the Burning Legion, in the fight for their survival. However she was sure that they would never beat the legion without help. She knew what she needed to do and that Malfurion wouldn't like it.

Tyrande hurried to the prison where they were holding Illidan. Already there was a lot of damage from the attack. Seeing her home being destroyed was unsettling but it made her sure she was making the right decision. Her sentials followed closely behind her.

"We must hurry" she told them as she lead them in the prison.

They hurried through the prison by they didn't get far when they were stopped by a group of watchers guarding the prison.

"What are you doing here?" one of them asked.

There was no point in lying, it would only take more time and that was something they were short on.

"We've come to free Illidan and take him to help us fight the Burning Legion" She told them.

"I haven't received any orders from Maiev" another replied.

Tyrande sighed "We don't have time to work that out. We are going to let Illidan out and you're not going to stop us"

Their was a moment of silence before everybody went for their weapons and fighting broke out between them.

It didn't last long, Tyrande and her sentinels killed the guard relatively easily. Tyrande regretted that it had come to bloodshed but freeing Illidan was the most important thing. At that moment they heard a bell ringing.

"That's the alarm bell, We must hurry" Tyrande told her sentinels.

They continued moving through the prison, hurrying to reach Illidan's cell before they were overrun by prison guards. Much to Tyrande unhappiness they ran into several more guards that they were forced to kill along the way.

They were almost at Illidan's cell when they ran into more guards. Tyrande recognised one of them meaning he was probably important. His name was Califax.

"You're here to free Illidan the Betrayer?" he asked

"Yes, We need his help to defeat the Burning Legion" she told him

"Illidan was the one who caused this mess, freeing him will doom us all" Califax told her.

Tyrande ignored him. Why couldn't he see that they needed Illidan's help to win, why couldn't any of them see that. Illidan may have made a mistake but now was his chance to make up for it.

"Let us have Illidan and you won't be harmed" she told the guards

"We will not abandon our duty by letting you take him" Califax replied.

Her sentinels and the guards battled again. They defeated the guards but Tyrande couldn't help but thinking what a waste it was. With the guards defeated there was nothing stopping her from freeing Illidan. She hurried to the door and opened it.

Illidan

The door of his cell was opened and Illidan looked to see Tyrande standing in the doorway.

"Tyrande what are you doing here? What's going on?" he asked her

"The Burning Legion has returned and we need your help to stop them" she told him

"You need my help? What makes you think you'll get it? It sounds to me like I'm safer in here" he told her.

"Illidan please, you caused this mess now you have a chance to fix it. Our people are dying out there" she begged him

"Very well I'll help you but only because I care about you and not because I want to help our people. They stopped being my people when they locked me in here" he told her.

They left the prison quickly, Apparently there was no time to waste. When they reached the entrance Illidan felt the strong breeze blowing past him. His dark cell had been without things of nature such as the wind. In his time in the cell Illidan had almost forgotten how the wind felt against his skin. He had only been in prison a week, he hated to think how strange the world would have felt if he'd been locked up for much longer, he'd probably be completely crazy if they'd locked him up for ten thousand years.

As they left the prison and headed towards the main battlefield where they came across Malfurion. Illidan had little else to do but think over the last few days and one of the things he'd thought most about was how much he hated his brother.

"Tyrande what is he doing here? I told you to leave him in prison" Malfurion said angrily

"It's good to see you too brother" Illidan said his tone full of venom and sarcasm

"And I said we needed his help to win. I am not going to leave our people to suffer and die because you are too proud to ask your brother for help" Tyrande said.

"Fine I guess if you feel so strongly about it he can help us, but I don't trust him" Malfurion replied.

'Of course he doesn't trust me. Well I hate him, So much for him saying he wanted to work things out between us before I left' Illidan thought to himself. Their relationship could never be fixed, they could never be brotherly again.

"I'm doing this for Tyrande not for you or anyone else, but I will not betray you" he told his brother.

Malfurion looked at him "Forgive me if I don't find that reassuring"

Illidan ignored his brother comment and accepted his weapons from one of the sentinels preparing himself to fight alongside the rest of the night elves.

Arthas

Since destroying the troll mercenaries Arthas had had no reason to continue staying at the Alliance base, it did not help him reclaim Lordaeron. However upon deciding to leave the outpost commander had decided that since Arthas was the King he needed to be protected. Arthas had refused his protection but the commander had been rather insistent and Arthas couldn't continue to refuse him. The guard that had been sent with him had been ordered to guard Arthas and get him on a ship back to Lordaeron and perhaps they were even to go with him. On the positive side, Arthas had run into an old friend Muradin Bronzebeard. Muradin and Arthas had known each other for years. He had taught Arthas much about fighting and they had been on many adventures together. Muradin had also tied at one point to convince him to continue training to be a Paladin, like everybody wanted him to be. However Arthas had let everybody down by choosing not to be a Paladin, a warrior of the holy light that fights for justice and is often helpful to other people just really didn't sound like his kind of thing. As Muradin was a friend Arthas had been able to convince him that they needed to stay in Northrend and eventually they had won the guards over.

"Do you still have that evil sword you found last time we were here?" Muradin asked him

"You mean this?" Arthas said holding up the sword he had used to kill his father "I was hoping to get a matching armor set made but I didn't have the time"

"So how's that lovely wife of yours?" Muradin asked in an attempt to change the subject.

" I hope she's miserable, We got divorced. It turns out we couldn't stand each other" Arthas replied as they made their way through the snow.

"Oh, well perhaps the divorce was for the best then lad" Muradin replied "should we make camp here?"

Arthas nodded "We will continue at first light"

The rest of the camp fell asleep relatively quickly but not Arthas. He kept thinking over what he would need to do and eventually he decided to take a walk to clear his head. It was very gently snowing as he walked, the stars were veiled by large clouds covering the sky. It was dark, If not for the flaming torch in his hand Arthas would have struggled to see even a meter in front of him. Arthas kept moving despite the darkness around him. As he moved through the dark gloom a large castle appeared out of the darkness. As Arthas moved closer he saw that the design of the castle was much like his sword. There were large spikes that were on the outside of the building. Arthas could only think how badass the castle looked, if only he could make his castle in Lordaeron look like that. He walked up the long steps towards the entrance of the awesome castle. The castle was huge but empty as Arthas made his way through it. He reached the top of the citadel and saw a throne of ice at the top of the frozen stairs, Arthas was about to climb the stairs to the top when he suddenly realized he wasn't alone. He drew his sword and whirled around, behind him stood a large red skinned being with hoofed feet. Arthas was sure he had never met one of his kind before.

"You? You're the Lich King?" the being asked staring at Arthas sword

Arthas was confused "No I'm the King of Lordaeron"

"You mean the former King of Lordaeron" the being corrected him

"It's mine by right! I'll take it back one day soon and what would you know about it" Arthas snapped back.

The red skinned being paused for a moment "What if I were to help you get it back? I'm Kil'jaeden of the Burning Legion" he told Arthas

Arthas through for a moment, he wanted to take back his kingdom but he didn't think he'd heard of the Burning Legion before, not that he had ever paid much attention to anything that might ever have been said anyway. Still a 'Legion' implied a huge army, something that he could actually use at the moment.

"The Burning Legion? Is that suppose to mean something to me? I mean it doesn't sound very scary does it? What is it? a group of.." Arthas stopped here and considered his words carefully, he very nearly said 'ugly things' "People going around burning things" he finished.

Kil'jaeden looked annoyed and Arthas could tell he was testing his patience.

"I didn't choose the name" Kil'jaeden began "We have the ability to crush this world. I came here looking for the Lich King as an ally against the forces of this world. The person who wields that sword has the power to raise the dead, to create an army under their control, if you want to join us we could use your ability at Mount Hyjal"

Arthas thought about it, he had a feeling that Kil'jaeden wasn't asking, that if he said no he would kill him and find somebody else to be the Lich King. Also if he used the Burning Legion to get what he wanted then it was possible that not just Lordaeron but the whole world was within his reach and Arthas intend to take it if the opportunity arose.

"I'll join you, but can we please consider a better name than the Burning Legion" Arthas told him

"There's a graveyard not to far from the base of the citadel. Head there to get your first troops".

Arthas did as he was told but he hated feeling like he was a subordinate. He used the swords power to rise the dead from their resting place. As the corpses rose up for the ground Arthas laughed quietly to himself. His own army that would follow his orders without question, nothing could make him happier.

Dawn quickly began to fill the surrounding atmosphere and Arthas hurried across the ice with his few undead troops looking for more bodies to create undead with.

"Arthas? What are you doing lad?" Muradin asked him and he and the Alliance guards moved towards him.

Arthas stopped and through for a moment, he through about who and what he was and what he wanted to become.

"Arthas Menethil is no more. I am the Lich King now and nobody will stand in the way of me getting what I want!"

"And what do you want?" Muradin asked sounding shocked and confused

"The world" Arthas replied with an evil grin "and every world in existence"

"What's happened to you Arthas?" Muradin asked "When did you become so evil?"

Arthas laughed "I didn't realise that the world should belong to me until now"

"Arthas we can't let you do such a thing!" Muradin replied glancing at the undead following him and raising his hammer.

"Very well" Arthas replied raising his own sword "Kill them" he commanded his undead followers.

The fight began between them, Arthas decapitated an Alliance guard relatively quickly. However two of his own undead were down quickly as well. Arthas moved towards Muradin and his blade clashed against the dwarf's hammer.

"Do you think your father would be proud of you Arthas?" Muradin asked as he blocked one of Arthas blows.

"I killed my father!" Arthas replied furiously as he avoided a return blow from Murdin "He stood in my way".

As the battle between them raged on Arthas noticed a cliffs edge near where they fought and came up with an idea. He started a series of quick attacks against his opponent designed to overwhelm him and drive back. He managed to break through the Dwarf's defences and give him several small cuts. Muradin backed up a bit exactly as Arthas had planned and the two of them continued to battle along the cliff's edge. Arthas created a false opening to his left and Muradin swung his hammer quickly trying to take advantage of his opponents weakness. Arthas blocked the blow knowing that it could easily become a massive probably for him and leave him vulnerable. He quickly brought his knee up and into the side of Muradin's head. The Dwarf was pushed back by Arthas's kick and fell back over the cliff. Arthas brought his sword round to finish him off but the Dwarf had already fallen away into the fog. Arthas looked down the cliff but the fog was preventing him from seeing the bottom. Muradin had been a friend to him and his family for years and now he lay dead somewhere at the bottom on the cliff and Arthas was not bothered in the slightest. Like his father he had gotten in his way and Arthas didn't mind removing those that did by force. He turned away from the cliff's edge and returned to the task of creating his army.

 **Author notes:** **Just thought I'd add a little explanation here. There was a pervious Lich King who build the Icecrown citadel but that's not really important to the story, originally I was going to have Arthas order his undead to build icecrown citadel and just met up with the Burning Legion in Northrend but in the Drafting phase I realized that it didn't really make sense. To be honest I was really stuck with the Arthas section so if you think it a bit weird that's why.**

 **Firedragon99: Thank you for reviving my story! As to your questions I hadn't considered putting a conversion between Anduin and Varian about his father but I'll see if I can put it (or something similar) in somewhere. I don't have any plans to have consequences of the one night stand between Sylvanas and Varian.**


End file.
